ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Drake Bulldogs great run at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference tournament ended today in the championship game. Playing their fourth game in four days the Bulldogs lost to the Creighton Bluejays, 53-38.

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Senior Rachael Hackbarth (Colgate, Wis.) led Drake (18-15) with 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds on her way to all-tournament team honors. Morgan Reid (Kansas City, Mo.) added ten points and four rebounds as the Bulldogs fell just short in winning their sixth MVC championship in school history.

"I am so proud of our team and these young women," Drake head coach Amy Stephens said. "They fought and clawed and unfortunately after facing four presses in four days we were operating on fumes in the second half. Our kids were resilient all weekend, and we got great tournament experience. I couldn't be more proud of our kids."

Creighton (20-12) was led by the all-tournament team outstanding player, Carli Tritz who scored 19 points and grabbed five rebounds. McKenzie Fujan added 12 points, including three-three pointers for the Bluejays who earned the MVC automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Creighton held a 20-16 halftime lead as the Bluejays were led by Sarah Nelson's ten first half points. Hackbarth paced the Bulldogs with eight points and ten rebounds. Both teams struggled from the field with Drake just five of 23 (21.7 percent) and Creighton seven of 25 (28 percent), however the Bluejays knocked down three trey's and held the Bulldogs to zero.

Out of halftime Creighton stormed ahead with 11 straight points from Fujan to help take a 31-22 lead and force a Drake timeout with 16 minutes left in the game.

A Tritz basket pushed the CU lead to 37-22 but Drake responded with a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 39-34 going into the third media timeout with 7:42 left in the game. Hackbarth had five points in the run and Carly Grenfell (York, Neb.) knocked down the Bulldogs only three-pointer.

Kyndal Clark (Webb City, Mo.) hit a jumper to get Drake within three at 39-36 and was fouled on the play but she couldn't convert the traditional three-point play. Creighton responded with a 10-0 run over the next five minutes to build a 49-36 lead to put the game away.

Drake the number seven seed began their tournament run on Wednesday night with a win over tenth seeded Evansville, 52-48 in a play in game. Thursday night in the quarterfinals, the Bulldogs dropped number two seed Illinois State, 56-54 to advance to the semifinals, where they defeated number three seed Wichita State, 56-52.

"When you see what we did down the stretch and peaking at the right time, I couldn't be more proud of our team and our senior leadership was incredible," Stephens said.

Senior Amber Wollschlager (Millbank, S.D.) was recognized after the game by the MVC as the Elite 18 award winner for having the highest grade point average of all players in the championship game.

The Bulldogs will wait till Monday night to find out possible postseason play. Drake's 18 wins this season are the most since the 2008-09 season when they finished 19-12.