Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Drake women's basketball team dropped a 74-56 decision to league-leading Wichita State on Saturday, February 4 in the Knapp Center.

Drake falls to 11-11 on the season and 5-6 and league play with the setback, while Wichita State improves its record to 15-7 on the year and 9-2 in Missouri Valley Conference.

Today's defeat marks the third straight home loss for the Bulldogs.

Turnovers ultimately doomed the Bulldogs as they committed 18 turnovers compared to Wichita State's 11. The Shockers capitalized off those Drake miscues scoring 21 points.

Senior Rachael Hackbarth (Colgate, Wis.) extended her double-double streak to eight games registering a 17-point, 12-rebound performance while adding five assists on the day.  Hackbarth logged 38 minutes in the contest, equaling a career high.

Freshman Kyndal Clark (Webb City, Mo.) scored 11 points, while junior Stephanie Running (Oak Creek, Wis.) added 10 points and four rebounds.

The game started off as a back-and-forth affair with the Bulldogs and Shockers trading leads early on.  

Drake held a 23-21 lead with 5:40 left in the first stanza thanks to a Brittnye McSparron (Apple Valley, Minn.) layup. Wichita State went on a 16-5 run to close out the half to make it a 37-28 contest in favor of the Shockers.

"I thought we did a nice job for the first part of the first half," commented head coach Amy Stephens. "I think Rachael Hackbarth summed it up well as she said we didn't make shots. Kids were doing a good job executing the game plan and then we didn't make some shots and we didn't dig in."

In the second half, the Shockers extended their lead to as many as 23 points.

Overall, Wichita State went on a 53-23 run to close the game after the Bulldogs last led with 5:40 left in the first half.

Drake travels on the road on Thursday, Feb. 9, to face off against Southern Illinois. Tipoff in Carbondale is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.