OMAHA, Neb. – Drake women's basketball suffered their second loss to a ranked opponent this season, and third overall, in a 75-71 defeat. The Bulldogs overcame a 17-point fourth quarter deficit to challenge the 18th-ranked Bluejays until the final moments. Drake is now 5-3 on the season with just one more contest before MVC play begins.
 
In the opening stages of the game, Sarah Beth Gueldner connected with Maggie Bair for the first basket of the match. The Bluejays started slowly with back-to-back traveling violations on their end of the floor. Grace Berg and Bair combined to score 13 of the Bulldogs' first 14 points. Drake led by as many as four points in the first period after a Megan Meyer drawn charge led to a Bair triple. Towards the end of the first, Lauren Jensen banked one in to give Creighton a 16-14 lead after ten minutes of action.
 
The Bluejays then rattled off a 13-3 run to start the second quarter. Two more Bair buckets cut the hosts' lead to just seven roughly halfway through the period. Creighton was able to build a substantial halftime advantage, 40-28, after forcing 15 Bulldog turnovers and making eight threes in 17 attempts during the first half.
 
After the break, Bair continued her impressive night with the first two points of the second half to trim the Creighton lead to 10. The Bluejays maintained their shooting streak and eventually held a 60-43 lead after three periods.
 
Trailing by 17 to start the final quarter, the largest lead of the game, Drake produced back-to-back and-one plays by Katie Dinnebier and Bair to get within 11. Dinnebier canned another three to get within eight points and force a Creighton timeout. Later in the period, Bair exploded for two more layups and another deep three to cut the Creighton advantage to just two.
 
With time running out, Gueldner drilled a triple of her own to get back within three points, but the Bulldogs could not crawl back any further and dropped the 75-71 decision.
 
Maggie Bair led all players with 26 and 11 rebounds, good enough for the second double-double of the season and 10th of her career. Grace Berg eluded some early foul trouble to add 13 pints and collected three rebounds. Katie Dinnebier dished out seven assists to lead the Bulldogs in that category.
 
"Our growth area here is we just have to step off the bus and be ready to play," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "We had a group of warriors. It was really fun to watch them respond and hit big shots down the stretch. I'm disappointed we didn't have them ready to go but I'm proud that we were able to fight back. This one's going to sting for a while… [we have] a little more than a week until our next game, but we have to use this and grow."
 
Drake will be back in action on Sunday, Dec. 18 with an exhibition contest against Southwest Baptist before traveling to Ames for an in-state battle with Iowa State, their fourth matchup with a ranked opponent this season
 
NOTES

• Third game this season against a ranked opponent. (1-2 record)
• Both ranked losses to ranked teams have come by a combined 10 points.
• Maggie Bair, the game's leading scorer and rebounder with 26 points and 11 boards, logged the second double-double of the year and 10th of her career.
• Creighton shot a blistering 46.2% from three-point range.
• Drake outscored the Bluejays 40-18 in the paint.
• The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series with Creighton, 43-28.