MOLINE, ILL. – A pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining by Missouri State helped edge the Drake University women's basketball team, 65-61, in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday at the iWireless Center.
Drake (22-9) held a 61-60 lead with 1:44 remaining after
Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) made a pair of free throws. Rhine, the MVC Freshman & Sixth Player of the Year, paced the Bulldogs with 19 points and 13 rebounds to record her fifth career double-double.
Drake forced a Missouri State (23-9) miss on the possession after Rhine's free throws. Junior
Caitlin Ingle (Runnells, Iowa) grabbed the defensive rebound, but later had a tough break as her layup attempt rolled out that would have extended the lead to three points. However, Rhine pulled down the rebound to keep the possession alive for the Bulldogs. Junior
Lizzy Wendell (Blue Springs, Mo.) attempted a three-pointer, but she too had bad luck as the attempt missed.
Onye Osemnam rebounded the miss and was fouled by Rhine. Osemnam made the first of two free throws as the Bulldogs grabbed the miss. Ingle had another good look that rolled out as the Lady Bears rebounded the miss. However, Tyonna Snow was called for 10 seconds in the backcourt as the basketball went back to Drake. Ingle had another jumper that just couldn't fall as Missouri State rebounded the miss.
Audrey Holt rebounded Snow's miss on the following possession and was fouled as she made both free throws with 22 seconds to lead 63-61. Drake had another try as Wendell attempted a jumper with 10 seconds left, but it fell short as the Danielle Gitzen grabbed the miss and was fouled. Gitzen made both free throws to stretch MSU's lead to 65-61 as Wendell's final attempt was off as the time ran out. Missouri State advanced to the tournament title game, where it will play No. 1 overall seed UNI.
"We love being in the Quad Cities. We loved all the fans here tonight and I wish we would've played a bit better," said Drake head coach Baranczyk. "They did a great job defensively. They crashed really well on the offensive end and gave us some problems. I loved a lot of the things we did, I loved how we came out yesterday, I love our team and we're going to still be playing and we're going to continue to get better, I do know that."
Drake got off to a slow start falling behind 9-0 at the start of the game, but the team didn't panic coming back to trail 19-15 after the first quarter. Rhine had eight points and Ingle had four points in the first quarter. Freshman
Nicole Miller (Walker, Iowa) had the other three points from her first three-pointer.
The Bulldogs trailed for most of the second quarter until Rhine made two free throws to lead 28-27 with 2:17 left in the quarter. The Lady Bears quickly answered with five quick points to lead by four, but Miller beat the clock on a deep three as Drake was down just 32-31 at halftime.
Drake led by as many as six points in the third quarter, but Missouri State trimmed its deficit to just two points at the end of the quarter at 46-44 after Wendell's jumper.
There were seven lead changes and five ties in the fourth quarter. Wendell ended the game with 11 points.
Drake will wait until late Monday night to find out if it will be returning to the WNIT postseason tournament. The WNIT field will be announced shortly after the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament selection show. Drake earned a WNIT berth last season and lost to Eastern Michigan in the opening round. Check back to
www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com for details.
"We want to get better and continue to play this season," Baranczyk said. "There are a lot of teams out there that would give anything to continue playing. We play a lot of people and play a lot of minutes – this is a team that loves the game of basketball. They love playing it and
playing together. We are still a young team and the more experience that our culture gets and the better we're going to be. You can tell it is coming."
