March 3, 2012

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Drake Bulldogs (15-14, 9-9 MVC) defeated the Creighton Bluejays (17-12, 11-7 MVC), 54-50 on senior day Saturday afternoon at the Knapp Center in front of 2,920 fans. Four Bulldogs scored in double figures led by Carly Grenfell (York, Neb.), who scored 15 points including a clutch three pointer in the final minutes to help hold off the Bluejays.

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Drake ended the regular season in a three-way tie with Northern Iowa and Indiana State for fifth place but due to tiebreakers the Bulldogs will be the seventh seed for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament next week. Drake will play tenth seeded Evansville on Thursday, March 8 at 7:05 p.m. in St. Charles, Mo.

Senior Amber Wollschlager (Millbank, S.D.) scored 13 points and Kyndal Clark (Webb City, Mo.) added 11 points and also hit a key three-pointer in the final minutes for the Bulldogs.

Rachael Hackbarth (Colgate, Wis.) recorded her 15^th consecutive double-double in the victory with 11 points and tied her career-high of 18 rebounds. The senior struggled from the field hitting just 3-of-14 shots but continuously pulled down important rebounds on both ends in the final minutes and helped distribute the ball to open teammates.

"Our team the last few games has started to understand the kickout pass to find open shooters especially when they clog the middle on Rachael," Drake head coach Amy Stephens said. "We are playing unselfish basketball and Carly, Kyndal and Amber each stepped up today to take the pressure off of Rachael."

Iowa native Ally Jensen paced the Bluejays with 12 points, all off of three pointers and McKenzie Fujan added nine points.

Creighton overcame a 15-point halftime deficit to get within one point twice in the final seven minutes but Drake answered each bucket with one of their own.

Hackbarth made a layup to put the Bulldogs ahead 44-37 with just over eight minutes to go in the game but Jasmin Corbin of Creighton knocked down a long three to cut the lead to 44-40. After a turnover by Hackbarth, Jensen hit her third trey of the game to get the Bluejays within one point at 44-43 but Wollschlager made a layup off a nifty assist by Morgan Reid (Kansas City, Mo.) to push the lead back to 46-43.

Creighton's Carli Tritz answered on the next procession with a tough jumper to get back within one point with 4:46 left but that would be as close as the Bluejays would get as a pair of freshman for Drake knocked down timely three-pointers on back-to-back processions to seal the win. Grenfell hit her final three to push the lead to 49-45 and Clark knocked down her only three-pointer of the game to extend the lead to 52-45.

"We were trying to get the ball into Rachael in the middle but it was clogged up and Liza swung it to Kyndal in the corner for a huge shot," Stephens said.

Jensen made another three-pointer with 1:35 left in the game but the Bulldogs, the number two team in the MVC in three-point defense forced two Bluejay three-point misses to seal the win.

The Bulldogs shot 90 percent (18-of-20) from the charity strip on Saturday afternoon led by Clark, who finished 6-of-6 for the game and she has now made her last 43-of-49 free throws.

Grenfell scored seven straight points the last on a three-pointer at the 6:10 mark in the first half to push the Drake lead to 17-12 and force the Bluejays to take a timeout.

After the timeout the Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run to extend their lead to 29-12 before Jensen drained a three to end the Bulldogs run.

Grenfell scored 12 points and Wollschlager added nine points for the Bulldogs in the first half.  Tritz led the Bluejays with six points and DaNae Moore added four points.

Drake held Creighton to just 24 percent (7-of-29) from the field and just eight percent (1-of-12) from behind the three-point line in the first half. The Bulldogs finished the half 13-of-13 from the free throw line and held a 31-15 lead.

The 2012 State Farm MVC Tournament awaits the Bulldogs, who will play in the final game on Thursday night against the Purple Aces. Drake swept Evansville this season, winning 67-5 in Des Moines on Jan. 14 and winning 55-51 on Feb. 12 in Evansville. The winner of the game on Thursday will advance to play number two seeded Illinois State on Friday, March 9 at 6:05 p.m.