DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University women's basketball team (19-9, 14-3 Missouri Valley Conference) welcomes the Loyola Ramblers (5-23, 3-14 MVC) to the Knapp Center Saturday at 2:05 p.m. in its final regular season game. Saturday is Senior Day for Carly Grenfell (York, Neb.), Liza Heap (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Cara Lutes (Maplewood, Minn.) and Bry Mueller (DePere, Wis.). A recognition ceremony for the four seniors will take place immediately following the conclusion of the game.
Ric Silvestrini and Molly Nelson will call the action on 1350 KRNT while live stats will be available at www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com.
REWIND
Drake never trailed against visiting Bradley as the Bulldogs claimed an 86-70 victory Thursday evening at the Knapp Center.
The Bulldogs' unselfish effort on the court against the Braves resulted in 25 assists on 32 made field goals as they secured No. 2 seed at next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo. Drake will play March 14 at 6:05 p.m. against the winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 10 play-in game on March 13.
Drake had three players finish in double figures. Freshman Becca Jonas (Independence, Mo.) scored a team-high 19 points and added three rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Lizzy Wendell (Blue Springs, Mo.) contributed 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Freshman Caitlin Ingle (Runnells, Iowa) followed with 15 points, nine rebounds, nine assists and two steals in just 24 minutes as she narrowly missed her second career triple-double.
Bradley redshirt sophomore Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn.) led the Braves with 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting and added eight rebounds.
Ingle took the first drive of the game down the lane, passing it off Jonas who contributed the first points. Freshman Maddy Dean (Jordan, Minn.) added a jumper from the left wing that kick started a powerful 23-4 opening run. Jonas and senior Liza Heap (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) each contributed six points during that span giving Drake a 27-8 advantage with nine minutes remaining in the first half. Heap finished the game with six points behind a season-high two three-pointers.
Later, redshirt senior Carly Grenfell (York, Neb.) made a three-pointer, giving Drake a 12-point advantage going into halftime, leading 39-27.
The Bulldogs put away 7-of-26 total three-pointers, shooting at 27 percent. They shot 53 percent from the field, converting on 32-of-60 field goals. Drake was also able to score 25 points off of Bradley's 18 turnovers.
Early in the second half, Drake took off with a 10-0 run, kick started by a layup from Ingle and a three-pointer by Wendell, giving Drake a 20-point lead and a 51-31 advantage.
Wendell contributed five more points with a three-pointer and layup, allowing Drake a commanding 66-45 lead, 12 minutes into the second half. The Bulldogs and Braves continued to swap baskets, with Drake constantly keeping a minimum14-point lead. During that time, senior Cara Lutes (Maplewood, Minn.) contributed four points and junior Emma Donahue (Naperville, Ill.) converted a jumper off the bench.
SCOUTING LOYOLA
Loyola is led in scoring by Taylor Manuel at 16.0 points per game. Manuel transferred form Purdue and became eligible in mid-December. She also leads the Ramblers in rebounding at 9.5 boards per game. Taylor Johnson and Simone Law are next in scoring at 12.2 and 12.0 points, respectively. Sheryl Swoopes, perhaps the greatest women's basketball player of all-time, is in her second season of coaching as the head coach of Loyola.
HEAD TO HEAD
Saturday's game is just the tenth all-time meeting between the two schools with Drake holding a 6-3 advantage in the series. Drake and Loyola opened the MVC schedule in Chicago this season in a game the Bulldogs won 86-60. The two schools split two games last season as the visiting team each captured road wins. Saturday's game is the fourth matchup between the Bulldogs and the Ramblers as conference mates as Loyola joined the MVC in July of 2013.
FINAL TIME
Grenfell, Heap, Lutes and Mueller will suit up for their final home games Saturday. Grenfell, who suffered a season-ending injury six games into her first season, redshirted and has played in every game all four seasons since. She has scored 704 points and made 142 three-pointers in 129 games. Heap has started 69 straight games for the Bulldogs. She has scored 357 career points and grabbed 350 rebounds in 114 career games. Lutes has played in 103 games in her four seasons and scored 186 points and pulled down 196 career rebounds. Mueller joined the team midway through the 2013-14 season after spending one and a half seasons as a team manager. She has played in 12 career games and in Drake's game at Missouri State, she logged a career-high nine minutes and finished with a career-high three rebounds, two assists and two steals. The four-member class has played in 359 combined games.
20 IN SIGHT
With an 19-9 record and one regular season games remaining on the schedule, Drake has an opportunity to finish with its first 20-win season since the 2007-08 campaign. The 2007-08 team finished the regular season with exactly 20 wins, and went on to win two games at the MVC tournament and one in the WNIT to finish with a 23-11 record. This year's team with 14 league wins, gives Drake 17 times of winning at least 12 conference games. It's the most MVC wins in a season since the 2001-12 team went 15-3.
SEEDING FOR ST. CHARLES
With its victory over Bradley, Drake clinched the number two seed for the MVC Tournament in St. Charles, Mo. held March 12-15, where the winner will claim the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The No. 2 seed allows the Bulldogs to avoid the tournament play-in games for the second consecutive season. As the No. 2 seed, Drake plays the winner of the No. 7 versus No. 10 play-in game, on March 14 at 6:05 p.m.
RUN AND GUN CONTINUES
On the season, Drake leads the MVC in scoring at 76.4 with Southern Illinois next at 67.2. Drake's scoring mark ranks No. 20 in the nation.
Great shooting and unselfish play has propelled the Bulldogs to their outstanding scoring clip. The team leads the MVC and ranks 12th nationally with a 45.3 percent field goal percentage while also leading the league in team assists at 17.6 per game. The team assists mark ranks tenth in the nation.
PACK THE KNAPP
Drake is drawing a league-leading 2,726 fans per game to the Knapp Center this season. The Bulldogs currently ranks 43rd in the nation in average attendance. In head coach Jennie Baranczyk's first season (2012-13), the Bulldogs finished third in average attendance with 2,265 per game and in 2013-14 they were second with 2,456 fans packing the Knapp Center stands.
NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP HERE
Wendell continues to have an impressive second season. She leads the league and ranks tenth in the nation in scoring at 22.2 points per game.
Wendell made history in Drake's win over Wichita State on Feb. 1 as her 17 points pushed her past 1,000 career points. She is the 27th women's basketball player in school history to reach 1,000 career points and needed just 52 career games to tally 1,000. She is just the fourth Drake player to accomplish the feat as a sophomore. The last Bulldog to reach 1,000 career points as a sophomore was the school's all-time leading scorer, Lorri Bauman, in 1982.
Wendell has scored in double figures in all 28 games this season. Dating back to last year she has scored 10 or more points in 42 straight games. This season she leads the league with 18 20-plus scoring games and has 30 20-plus games in her career. Wendell leads the MVC with five 30-plus scoring games.
Her two 43-point games this season are tied for 10th in most points scored in a single game in MVC and seventh in Drake women's basketball history. She is the only player in the NCAA this year to score 40 or more points in two games.
Her 43-point performances are the most scored by a MVC women's basketball player since Indiana State's Melanie Boeglin registered 46 points in a double overtime contest on Jan. 26, 2006, at Drake.
Scoring is not the only statistical category where Wendell is posting great numbers. In The Valley, she ranks fourth in three's made per game (2.2) and in field goal percentage (48.5), sixth in steals (2.0) and in three-point percentage (36.1), seventh in free throw percentage (76.5), t-8th in assists (2.6) and t-19th in rebounding (4.9). What is even more impressive is that Wendell is posting these outstanding numbers while averaging only 32.6 minutes per game, which ranks eighth in minutes played in The Valley.
FLOOR LEADER
Ingle has been a catalyst for the Bulldogs' offense in her second season as she leads the league and ranks ninth in the nation in assists per game at 6.9. Ingle notched the MVC's first triple-double since 2009, recording 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, in the win over Missouri State on Jan. 30. The Valley has seen only 12 triple-doubles since the league began in 1992-93. Ingle is the first Bulldog to record a triple-double in MVC history. On Feb. 6, Ingle was named to the watch list for the prestigious Nancy Lieberman award, which honors the top point guard in the nation.
Ingle has seven career points/assists double-doubles and one points/rebounds double-double She has recorded eight or more assists in a game eight times this season. She has twice handed out a career-high 15 assists in a game, first against Bradley on Jan. 4 and again at SIU on Feb. 6. The 15 assists are tied for the third most in a game in school history.
NEW FACES
Drake has four newcomers this season in freshmen Maddy Dean (Jordan, Minn.), Paige Greiner (Williamsburg, Iowa) and Jonas along with sophomore Cortni Rush (Mason City, Iowa), a junior college transfer.
Jonas is second in the conference in rebounding average at 8.8 while Dean is seventh at 6.8. Dean leads all league freshmen in scoring at 13.5 points per game with Jonas behind her at 12.1 points. They are the only freshmen ranked in the top-20 in the MVC in both scoring and rebounding. Jonas is second in the league in field goal percentage at 51.9 percent while Dean is fourth in free throw shooting at 80.5 percent. Jonas has started every game this season while Dean has started every conference game.
Rush started 10 of the first 11 games before being sidelined with a foot injury. She returned to the court against UNI on Feb. 13, and has played in four games since returning from the injury. Greiner has provided long distance shooting off the bench as the Williamsburg, Iowa, native hit four key three-pointers in the Wichita State and Evansville (Feb. 20) wins and also knocked down deep three-pointers to beat the halftime buzzer in the Wisconsin and Idaho State wins. She leads The Valley in three-point shooting at 49.2 percent (30-of-61).
ALMOST MATCHED
Drake's loss at Southern Illinois on Feb. 6 left the Bulldogs one win shy of the best league start in school history as the 1998 team opened its MVC campaign 10-0. With its win over Missouri State to close January, this year's team tied the 1998 team for most wins in a month with eight. The 1998 team earned eight victories in the month of February. The Bulldogs' nine-game winning streak this season was the program's longest winning streak since the 2001-02 squad had 11 consecutive victories.
MVC AWARDS
Wendell has collected four MVC Player of the Week honors this season, while Jonas and Dean have collected four and three MVC Newcomer of the Week honors, respectively.
TOUGH LOSS
Senior Kyndal Clark (Webb City, Mo.) will miss the remainder of the 2014-15 season due to a knee injury suffered in the season-opener Nov. 14 against South Dakota. Clark scored 17 points in the game.
Clark is coming off an historic junior campaign as she was named the 2014 Jackie Stiles Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. She became the 26th player in school history to surpass 1,000 career points and led the nation in average three-pointers made per game at 3.62.
Clark, who paced The Valley in scoring at 19.6 points per game, also knocked down a school and MVC-record 116 three-pointers, including a new Drake single-game mark with 10 against Loyola on Jan. 24, 2014. Clark recorded a league-leading four 30-point scoring games, with a career-high 41 points versus UNI, in 2013-14.
On Feb. 10, Clark was announced as one of 20 student-athletes selected to the 2015 Allstate WBCA and NABC Good Works Teams. The prestigious award pays tribute to college basketball players at all levels for their impressive commitment to giving back to their communities and positively impacting the lives of those around them. Clark is the first Drake student-athlete and MVC basketball student-athlete to be named to the Allstate WBCA and NABC Good Works Team.
YOU WIN THIS TIME
Even with the 93-71 loss to its former MVC-rival Creighton on Dec. 14, Drake still holds a commanding lead in the all-time series against its neighbor to the west. The Bulldogs own a 38-25 advantage, including a 15-12 mark in games played in Omaha. Drake claimed a season opening win over Creighton in 2013-14.
TOURNAMENT HONORS
Wendell was selected the Most Valuable Player of the 2014 UTSA Thanksgiving Classic, while Jonas joined Wendell on the All-Tournament team as Drake collected wins over UTSA and Fordham in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov. 28 and 30, respectively.
Wendell opened the tournament with 27 points on 8-14 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three-point range, with four rebounds, two steals and two assists in 36 minutes in the win over the Roadrunners. In the victory over the Rams, she scored 14 points with two key three-pointers along with pulling down five boards.
Jonas scored 11 points and hauled in five rebounds in the win over UTSA. She topped that performance in the Fordham victory, collecting her first career double-double with 13 points and 10 boards in a career-high 33 minutes.
SHIVERS BASKETBALL PRACTICE FACILITY
On Nov. 14, the Bulldogs officially dedicated their new $8 million state-of-the-art home, the Shivers Basketball Practice Facility. The 44,000 square foot structure, connected to the east side of the Knapp Center, provides dedicated practice space for both the Drake men's and women's teams. In addition to a pair of practice courts, the facility features new locker rooms, team lounges and film room. The upper level of the structure includes the Courtside Club for gameday hospitality and campus events.
HIGH SCORING
Drake averaged 71.0 points per game in the 2013-14 season, which ranked just behind Wichita State (71.1) with the top mark in the conference. The Bulldogs did best the Shockers in points per game in MVC action by averaging 74.3 points per contest.
HISTORY BEYOND THE ARC
The Bulldogs knocked down a school-record 287 three-pointers last season, including a single-game record of 17 against Bradley on Jan. 26. The 287 three-pointers ranks third in MVC history as Missouri State holds the top mark with 305 made during the 2004-05 season. Drake smashed the previous school record of 191, which was jointly held by the 2012-13 and 1997-98 teams.
DRAKE PICKED THIRD
Drake was picked to finish third in the 2014-15 Missouri Valley Conference's annual preseason poll, the conference office announced prior to the start of the league's basketball media day in St. Louis in late October. The defending league champions, Wichita State, were picked first in the preseason poll, while in-state rival UNI was selected second. Evansville and Indiana State were selected fourth and fifth, respectively.
EARLY SEASON RECOGINITION
In addition to the preseason team rankings, the MVC also announced its annual preseason all-conference team, which included Clark and Wendell. Alex Harden of Wichita State, Dyanna Pierre of Southern Illinois, Jen Keitel of UNI and Sara Dickey of Evansville round out the preseason all-conference squad. Harden is the MVC Preseason Player of the Year. Clark and Wendell were selected to the All-MVC first team in 2013-14.
BREAKOUT
Wendell shined for the Bulldogs in her debut season as she was named co-MVC Freshman of the Year with Sara Dickey of Evansville. Wendell earned a school-record eight MVC Newcomer of the Week awards during the 2013-14 season.
The Blue Springs, Mo., native finished with 536 points and was just the 10th MVC freshman to score 400 or more points in her first season. The 536 points scored is the fourth highest total by a Drake freshman in school history, and the third highest by a freshman in MVC history. She scored a career-high 35 points against UNI, which is a school-record for most points scored in a game by a freshman.
WE MEET AGAIN
For the second time in three years, Drake and South Dakota squared off to open a season as the Bulldogs and Coyotes kicked off the 2014-15 season at the Knapp Center after doing the same to open the 2012-13 season. South Dakota claimed both season-openers, but the Bulldogs were winners last season in a neutral site game in Sioux Falls, S.D. South Dakota won a tightly contested game, 83-78, this season on Nov. 14.
The two schools also played in the first round of the 2012 Women's National Invitational Tournament at the Coyote Dome in Vermillion, S.D. South Dakota grabbed a 61-53 victory. Prior to the WNIT matchup, the two schools hadn't played each other since the 1980-81 season. Drake owns a 5-3 advantage in the all-time series.
HIT THE BOOKS
This past offseason, the 2013-14 Drake Bulldogs squad garnered a prestigious accolade from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. The Bulldogs ranked sixth in the NCAA Division I WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll with a 3.571 team grade point average. It was the first time a Drake women's basketball team cracked the WBCA Top 25 Honor Roll since the 2001-02 campaign. The Bulldogs were the highest ranked team in the MVC.
BULLDOGS SIGN FOUR TO NATIONAL LETTERS OF INTENT
Drake welcomed four new student-athletes to the program on Wednesday (Nov. 12) as Sammie Bachrodt (Wichita, Kan.), Maddy Johnson (Sycamore, Ill.), Nicole Miller (Walker, Iowa) and Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) signed National Letters of Intent to join the program for the 2015-16 season.
“We are thrilled to add the 2015 class,” said head coach Jennie Baranczyk. “As a class, they are going to be glue that continues to establish our culture. They each bring unique talents and gifts, grit and toughness and share a passion for Drake.”
Bachrodt from Wichita, Kan., is a 5-10 guard who has helped Wichita Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School capture one state championship and a third-place finish in her first three seasons. During that span, the Crusaders have compiled an outstanding 63-12 record. Bachrodt was named Most Valuable Player of the Kansas 5A Girls Basketball State Tournament her freshman season when the team won the championship. She is a three-time all-state selection, who averaged a conference-leading 15.8 points per game her junior year.
Johnson, a 6-2 forward from Sycamore, Ill., is set to play her senior season for Sycamore High School after playing her first three seasons at nearby DeKalb High School. She led DeKalb to three conference, regional and sectional championships. As a junior, she averaged 12.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game on her way to being named third team all-state by the Associated Press.
Miller from Walker, Iowa, is a talented, multi-sport athlete at North Linn High School. A 5-9 guard, she guided the Lynx to the semifinals of the Iowa Class 2A Girls State Basketball Tournament her junior season. As a junior, she averaged 26.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists as she was named the Iowa Class 2A Player of the Year. A successful track and field athlete, she is a three-time Drake Relays qualifier and helped North Linn capture the team title as a junior and several state relays titles during her career.
Rounding out the class is Rhine, who hails from Eldon, Mo., but has significant family ties to Drake University and the state of Iowa. Her grandfather, Paul Twedt, played baseball and basketball at Drake. Twedt and his wife, Patty, are long time Drake women's basketball season ticket holders.
Rhine, a 6-1 forward, has led Eldon High School to conference championships in basketball and track and field. Like Miller, Rhine, has been highly successful in track and field. She is a three-time state champion in the high jump, and is the Missouri Class 3 State high jump record holder.
