ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Drake women's basketball team (2-0) overcame a messy start in their first road matchup of the season to down the defending Atlantic-10 Conference champions, Saint Louis (0-1). The Bulldogs used a dominant second quarter to oust the Billikens by a 78-66 margin.
 
Prior to tip off, the Billikens took their turn in celebrating a 2022-23 conference tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth with pregame ceremony.
 
The game started with six-straight empty possessions between the two teams. The scoreless start was broken when Katie Dinnebier fed Grace Berg for a transition bucket. True freshman Shannon Fornshell then sunk her first three of the year, and her career, on next possession.
 
Dinnebier led Drake's offensive effort with 18 points on the night followed by Berg with 17. Berg narrowly missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
 
Kyla McMakin gave Saint Louis their first lead at 9-7 at the first media break. After the pause, Anna Brown answered a short Billiken run by completing an and-one in transition to get Drake back within two. Saint Louis eventually led 18-14 after the first period with a combined 16 turnovers in the frame.
 
Brown added 14 points in total on 3-of-9 shooting from deep range.
 
The second quarter started with another Bulldog giveaway off the inbound, but the deficit was trimmed back to two after pair of Taylor McAulay free throws and a Courtney Becker trey. McAulay knotted the score at 20-all after a Billiken miss and forced a SLU timeout.
 
McAulay rounded out Drake's double-digit scorers with 10 points. Becker also totaled nine boards while Anna Miller led Drake's rebounding charge with 10.
 
The Bulldogs regained the lead after the atimeout with a Berg basket, part of a 15-0 run that spanned nearly five minutes. SLU ended the rally with a three-pointer of their own. The Bulldogs outscored the Billikens 20-9 in the quarter and led 34-27 at the half.
 
The Billikens began the second-half scoring with a smooth McMakin fader as both teams needed a few possessions to get back into rhythm. Becker eventually buried a triple midway through the period that extended Drake's lead to double figures. The Drake defensive pressure picked up, forcing another SLU lull, this time a 3:55 streak without a field goal.
 
The Bulldogs held a 12-point lead at 45-33, their largest of the game to that point, but the Billikens got back within single digits. Brown and Dinnebier answered again with a spot up three and pull-up bucket on back-to-back trips. The Drake lead grew to 16 at the end of the third quarter.
 
Scoring stalled to start the fourth until a pair of Billiken freebies sliced into Drake's advantage. Brooklyn Gray canned a three to get SLU within 11 as the Billiken's tried to get comeback going. Saint Louis kept its hopes alive by instituting a full-court press as McMakin came through with an old fashioned three-point play, shrinking the Drake advantage to 10. Gray cashed in again on back-to-back hooks to get within seven.
 
Drake nixed the Saint Louis resurgence with another clutch three, this time from Berg, her first make in three attempts. The sixth-year player added two free throw to force an SLU timeout with just under a minute to play. The Billikens were forced to foul down the stretch and Drake was nails from the line, clinching 78-66 win.
 
"It feels so good [to win on the road]," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "Credit to our team…credit to our coaching staff. We really only had one day to prep and knew they would jam the rebounds. Once we adjusted to the style of the game, we looked good on the boards. This experience is going to pay off so much."
 
Next up, the Bulldogs will host their first of two-consecutive in-state rivalry games as Iowa State visits Des Moines on Sunday, Nov. 12.
 
NOTES

• Drake has won three road debuts in a row.
• Eight of the nine players that checked in for Drake scored at least one point.
• Four players scored in double figures led by 18 from junior guard Katie Dinnebier. Dinnebier also led Drake with six assists.
• Grace Berg added 17 points while transfer guard Anna Brown scored 14 on 3-of-9 three-point shooting.
• Junior forward Anna Miller led Drake's rebounding effort with 10 boards and made three blocks.
• True freshman Shannon Fornshell scored just three points, but her lone make came on her first-career three-point basket.
• Drake now leads the all-time series with Saint Louis by a 5-2 margin.