CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The Drake University women's basketball team couldn't overcome a slow start in a 91-78 loss at UNI Friday night at the McLeod Center in the regular season finale.
 
Drake finished with a 22-8 regular season record, including a 14-4 record in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Bulldogs will be the No. 2 seed at next week's MVC Tournament in Moline, Ill. They will play Friday night inside the TaxSlayer Center at 6 p.m. against the winner of the No. 7 vs No. 10 game that will be played Thursday night.
 
Becca Hittner scored a game-high 29 points while Sara Rhine recorded her 10^th double-double with 19 points and equaled her career-high of 15 rebounds. Maddie Monahan finished in double figures for the fourth-consecutive game with 17 points.
 
UNI (18-11, 10-8) was led by Kam Finley with 28 points while Karli Rucker added 22 points. The Panthers will be the fifth seed in Moline and will play No. 4 Illinois State Friday at 2:30 p.m.
 
Drake, which fell behind by as many as 12 in the first quarter, slowly fought back into the game. Finley propelled UNI with 15 points in the opening quarter. Brenni Rose scored a late layup just before the first-quarter buzzer and Hittner converted a layup for the Bulldogs' first points of the second quarter that cut the deficit to one point. However, UNI extended its lead to nine points with the score 44-35 at halftime.
 
The Panthers held their largest lead of the night at 15 points with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Drake mounted a rally attempt in the final quarter chipping the deficit to six points, 77-71, with 3:14 to play after Monahan made a pair of free throws. But UNI countered with a 6-1 scoring run to put the game away as it snapped a nine-game losing streak in the in-state rivalry.