DES MOINES, Iowa – Anna Miller's 11th double-double of the season and a dominant fourth quarter carried the Drake women's basketball team past Missouri State 76-65 at the Knapp Center on Thursday night to start a four-game homestand on a positive note.
 
Struggling to cope with Missouri State's size and strong inside play for much of the night, the Bulldogs (21-5, 14-)) began going inside themselves and pulled away after trailing by as many as nine points in the third quarter.
Drake's sixth straight victory keeps the Bulldogs solidly entrenched in first place, two games ahead of Belmont. Missouri State (17-7, 11-4), which had won five of its last six, fell to three games back of the Bulldogs.
 
Miller finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, five blocks to match her season high, three steals to match her career high and two assists, turning things around after a frustrating start. She made just 2-of-7 shots in the opening half but went 6-for-7 over the final 20 minutes and helped shut down the Lady Bears' inside game in the fourth quarter.
 
Grace Berg also scored 19 points, going 8-for-13 from the field, and pulled down five rebounds. Taylor McAulay kept the Bulldogs in it early with 11 first-half points and wound up with 15, plus four rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
 
Courtney Becker delivered a solid line with nine points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks, while Katie Dinnebier had nine points, nine assists and three steals.
 
Drake blocked nine shots in all, a season high, and came up with 12 steals – the ninth time this season with at least 10 takeaways. The Bulldogs had assists on 20 of their 30 baskets and outrebounded Missouri State 33-30 after the Lady Bears controlled the boards for much of the game.
 
The Bulldogs piled up a 50-40 edge in points in the paint despite the figure sitting at 26-18 Missouri State in the first half. Drake shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter (9-for-15) and 47 percent for the game against the league's No. 2 defense. All 16 of Drake's field goals in the second half were layups.
 
Jade Masogayo led Missouri State with 19 points and Indya Green scored 18.
 
Drake trailed 45-36 midway through the third quarter and was down 45-40 when Miller began to assert herself. She drove for a basket, scored against contact on a putback and made the free throw, then converted another three-point play off a layup.
 
Miller then turned into a facilitator and found Becker inside for a layup. Becker hit another layup, this time after a feed from Dinnebier, and the Bulldogs had run off 12 straight points at the end of a 16-2 run to go up 52-47.
 
Drake led 54-49 at the quarter break and turned back the Lady Bears after they pulled within two points on three occasions, the last time at 60-58 with 7:39 remaining. Dinnebier then hit Berg with a wraparound pass under the basket for a layup and the Bulldogs scored six straight points to finally open some breathing room.
 
During one stretch in the fourth quarter, Dinnebier assisted on six baskets – all layups – and drove for a layup herself after Becker blocked a shot.
Becker's layup on a feed from McAulay made it 72-61 with 3:14 remaining and the Bulldogs stayed ahead by double figures the rest of the way.
 
It wasn't like that early. Missouri State pounded the ball inside and usually converted. Drake managed a 23-18 lead when Dinnebier pulled up for a three-pointer, but the Lady Bears rallied and ran off eight straight points to go up 31-27. They stayed ahead until Drake's run late in the third quarter and then never got the lead again.
 
"I continue to be impressed by our ability to process and pivot our mentality," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said, "You've got to get over some things and we did that. We were trying to do things at a pace above what we're able to play in and we decided to just totally take their points in the paint away. We were also able to improve our spacing and made layups. 100 percent credit to our team…really proud of our fight tonight."
 
It was Drake's third straight victory over Missouri State after losing nine straight to the Lady Bears. The Bulldogs continue their homestand against Northern Iowa at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
 
 
NOTES
 

• Drake, earning its sixth straight win, improved to 21-5 while maintaining first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 14-1 record.
• Drake, earning its seventh straight home victory, improved to 12-2 in the Knapp Center this season.
• Drake has now won at least six games in a row on two different occasions this season.
• The Bulldogs rejected a season-high nine blocks as a team.
• The Bulldog defense also had 12 steals, marking the ninth time Drake has collected 10 or more steals in a game this season.
• The Bulldogs overcame a nin-point deficit (45-36) in the third quarter, going on a 16-2 run to grab a 52-47 lead it never relinquished.
• Drake outrebounded Missouri State 33-30 and scored 14 second-chance points.
• Anna Miller enjoyed her 11th double-double of the season, and 18th in her career, with 19 points and a game-high 12 boards.
• Miller scored eight points during a 12-0 Drake run that prompted a Lady Bear timeout midway through the third period.
• Miller also tied a season high with five blocked shots as well as a career high three steals.
• Grace Berg shared Drake's top scorer honors with 19 points including a dozen in the second half.
• Taylor McAulay tallied 15 points including 11 in the first half.
• McAulay also had three steals for her sixth game of the season with at least that many takeaways.
• Katie Dinnebier added nine points and nine assists while collecting three steals.
• Courtney Becker also flirted with a double-double, scoring nine points and grabbing eight boards.
• Drake, winning its third straight game against Missouri State, is 47-51 all-time in the series. The Bulldogs are 27-15 vs. the Lady Bears when playing in Des Moines.