ESTERO, Fla. -  The Drake University women's basketball team travels to Estero, Fla. for the Gulf Coast Showcase this week. Drake plays Purdue Friday at 6:30 p.m. CST at Hertz Arena in the first of three scheduled games in the three-day, eight-team tournament. All games will be streamed on FloHoops.com and broadcast via radio on ESPN Des Moines 1350-AM.
 
Friday's game will be the first-ever meeting between Drake (4-1) and Purdue (4-0) as the Bulldogs will then face either Arizona State or Maine on Saturday. The field also features Auburn, Dayton, Gonzaga and Middle Tennessee on the other side of the bracket. Friday's game will be just the sixth-ever game for Drake in Florida and the first since 2001 when the Bulldogs won at Florida International. It is the first tournament for Drake in the Sunshine State since the 1987-88 team played in the Lady Sunshine Classic in Orlando.
 
Drake raced past Western Illinois, 94-75, Sunday in the team's lone contest and moved to 4-0 at the Knapp Center. The Bulldogs improved to 25-1 all-time against the Leathernecks. Three Bulldogs, led by Becca Hittner's season-high 25 points, scored in double figures. Sara Rhine and Maddie Monahan added 15 and 14 points, respectively. Monahan, a junior guard, is averaging a career-best 10.6 points and 3.8 assists per game and has twice hit her career-high in points of 14. In the WIU victory, she added a season-high eight assists and a career-high four steals. Hittner pulled down a career-best 12 rebounds for her second-straight double-double.
 
Purdue visits Florida coming off a 68-63 home win over Northern Illinois Sunday. The Boilermakers are paced in scoring by Dominique Oden at 14.5 points per game.