DES MOINES, Iowa – An early scoring burst propelled the Drake women's basketball team to its fourth straight victory and best conference start in five years.
 
Katie Dinnebier's 17-point, 11-assist double-double led five double-figure scorers as the Bulldogs beat Evansville 78-68 at the Knapp Center on Saturday afternoon – their 17^th-straight victory over the Aces.
 
Drake improved to 10-4 overall and 3-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference, the team's best start in conference play since winning its first seven MVC games in the 2018-19 season. The Bulldogs remain tied for first with Murray State, Belmont and Missouri State. All 10 victories this season have been by double-figure margins.
 
The Bulldogs hit some rough spots along the way, but they were never seriously threatened after jumping out to a 9-2 lead and forcing an Evansville timeout just 2:05 into the game.
 
The 11 assists were a season high for Dinnebier, who went 7-for-11 from the field with a three-pointer, matched her season best with six steals, grabbed six rebounds, and blocked a shot.
 
Grace Berg added 14 points, while Courtney Becker and Taylor McAulay scored 11 each and Becker collected seven rebounds. Freshman Shannon Fornshell scored 10 points – one short of her career high – on 5-for-8 shooting. Anna Miller pulled down 10 rebounds, her third straight double-figure total and seventh of the season, and tacked on eight points.
Miller played a key role in the fast start. She fed Berg for a layup and Berg followed with a three from the right wing. Another Miller assist led to a Becker layup and then the 6-foot-3 junior took matters into her own hands, putting the ball on the floor and taking it in for a layup. At that point, she had two assists, a block, a rebound and a basket.
 
"To start the game," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said, "We had a whole different aura about us. We did a nice job of connecting on some passes and continuing to develop our chemistry. We made the right reads and got stops defensively."
 
Evansville (2-11, 0-3) responded to the timeout with five straight points, but Drake roared back with a 13-2 run that Miller capped with a three-pointer from the top of the key. Fornshell's layup, after steal and pass from Dinnebier, made it 24-14 at the quarter break and the lead was never below double figures after that.
 
Dinnebier had just one basket in the opening quarter but gave the team a huge spark with her four steals and three assists.
 
McAulay's trey from the left corner and jumper from the top of the key started an 11-3 spurt to open the second quarter, stretching the lead to 35-17. McAulay finished that run with a post-up bucket on a pass from Becker.
 
The Bulldogs then hit a lull and Evansville outscored them 11-3 to draw to 38-28, but Dinnebier and Fornshell got their team back on track. Fornshell hit a turnaround shot and sank a layup on a pass from Dinnebier, who then buried a trey from the left wing and hit a short shot in the lane for a 47-30 halftime lead.
 
Drake's lead grew to 57-37 when Dinnebier hit Berg for a fastbreak layup, and the Bulldogs reached their biggest lead on a Miller deuce that made it 62-39 late in the third quarter.
 
Dinnebier converted a three-point play off a drive to the basket for a 69-48 lead with 7:34 left. Evansville then closed things out by knocking down six three-pointers in the final 7:17 to cut the final margin to 10.
 
 
Evansville shot 62.5 percent in the final quarter to finish at 38.8 percent for the game. The Aces wound up 11-for-29 from beyond the arc. Alana Striverson led the Aces with 15 points, while Kynidi Mason Striverson and Barbora Tomancova scored 12 each.
 
The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent for most of the game before finishing at 48.4. Drake outrebounded the Aces 42-24 and finished with 11 steals and assists on 21 of 31 field goals.
 
Drake will hit the road next weekend, playing at Valparaiso on Friday night (6 p.m.) and UIC on Sunday (1 p.m.).
 
 
 
NOTES
 

• Drake, earning its fourth-straight victory, improved its record to 10-4 overall and 3-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• The win improved Drake's current streak to four-straight victories and gave the Bulldogs their best start in conference play in five years.
• 31 of Drake's last 35 wins have been in double-figures including all nine victories during the 2023-24 campaign.
• All 10 of Drake's wins this season have been by double-digit margins.
• Drake, which ranks 11th in the NCAA and leads the MVC in field goal percentage (.491), shot 48.4 percent (31-64) from the floor, their second-straight contest in which the Bulldogs had shot under 50 percent.
• Saturday marked Drake's second-straight game, and sixth of the season, with at least 20 asssist as a team.
• Katie Dinnebier led all scorers with 17 points and added 11 assists for her first double-double of the season.
• The night prior, graduate Grace Berg was honored at her alma mater, Indianola High School, as the schools' newest member of the Indians' Athletics Hall of Fame. She was a four-time all-state performer and is Indianola's all-time leading scorer.
• Berg added 14 points while Courtney Becker and Taylor McAulay pitched in with 11 and Shannon Fornshell netted 10.
• Anna Miller was just one bucket shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 boards.
• Drake, winning its 17th-straight game against the Purple Aces, improved its series record against Evansville to 52-14 including a 24-6 mark in games played in Des Moines.