EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Drake University women's basketball team closes the regular season with a two-game road trip starting at Evansville on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m. and ending at Southern Illinois on March 5 at 2 p.m. Both contests will broadcast online via
The Valley On ESPN3. The Evansville game will broadcast on Praise 940 AM.
Drake (19-8, 12-4 MVC), winners of its previous two games, goes into the final week of action locked in a three-way tie for second place with Missouri State (19-9, 12-4 MVC) and Southern Illinois (19-9, 12-4 MVC). The three teams trail league-leader UNI (18-9, 13-3 MVC).
UNI will also play Evansville and Southern Illinois while Missouri State hosts Indiana State and Illinois State. Drake has a chance at the regular-season title or a share of it and the No. 1 seed at next week's MVC Tournament (March 10-13) in Moline, Ill., but will need to win both of its remaining games and have the Panthers drop at least one game. All four teams are guaranteed to avoid the tournament play-in games scheduled for March 10 at the iWireless Center.
The Bulldogs are coming off a pair of wins over Loyola and Bradley this past weekend at the Knapp Center. In the win over Bradley on Sunday, Drake had five players, led by junior
Lizzy Wendell's (Blue Springs, Mo.) game-high 24 points, score in double figures. Freshman
Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) was next with 14 points.
Maddy Dean (Jordan, Minn.),
Caitlin Ingle (Runnells, Iowa) and
Nicole Miller (Walker, Iowa) each chipped in 11 points.
On Monday, Rhine and Wendell swept the MVC weekly awards for their performances against the Ramblers and the Braves. Rhine won her league-leading fourth MVC Newcomer of the Week award and Wendell claimed her league-leading fifth MVC Player of the Week honor. Wendell paces the conference in scoring at 20.6 points per game while Rhine is averaging 12.6 points in her first season.
Evansville (2-25, 1-15 MVC) will play its first game under interim head coach Matt Ruffling after Oties Epps resigned as head coach on Monday. The Purple Aces are led in scoring by junior Sara Dickey at 16.1 points per game. In the first meeting of the season Drake defeated Evansville, 94-52, on Jan. 3.
Drake's regular season finale is set for Saturday at Southern Illinois. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. against SIU as the Bulldogs try to avenge their loss to the Salukis on Jan. 1.
