DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake women's basketball team stayed with the league's highest scoring team for a while but could not find the offense it needed to keep up and lost to Murray State 81-59 at the Knapp Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
Murray State, averaging 88 points a game, shot 55.6 percent in building a 41-29 halftime lead and finished at 51.7 percent in handing the Bulldogs their second straight loss. It's the first time Drake has lost back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference games since 2023, when the Bulldogs lost road games to Missouri State and Northern Iowa on Jan. 28 and Feb. 1. Belmont beat Drake 80-65 at the Knapp Center on Thursday night.
 
Unable to get inside often enough for layups or other close-in shots against a packed-in defense, Drake (11-7, 5-2) ended up taking more than half its shots – 39 of 71 – from 3-point range and made just 11. The Bulldogs shot just 29.6 percent overall, their second lowest figure of the season. Drake came in averaging 77 points a game, which ranks second in the league.
 
Katie Dinnebier led Drake with 16 points and was the only Bulldog in double figures. She added seven assists, four rebounds and with two steals, which moved her past Keisha Cox into sixth place on the school's career list. She now has 235 steals, an average of two a game for her career.
 
Anna Miller scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots before fouling out. Freshman post Maggie Taylor matched her career high with seven points and pulled down five rebounds while playing a career-best 17 minutes. Courtney Becker and Abbie Aalsma scored six points each and Becker grabbed six rebounds.
 
Murray State (12-4, 6-1), with Katelyn Young getting 26 points on 10-for-12 shooting, outscored the Bulldogs 36-20 in the paint in beating Drake for the first time in five meetings. Halli Poock and Ava Learn each scored 19 for the Racers, who have won four straight, and Learn collected 13 rebounds.
 
Drake struck early, Anna Miller getting a bucket on the game's first possession and Becker hitting a 3 on a feed from Miller. Dinnebier's drive to the hoop and 3-pointer from the wing gave the Bulldogs a 10-5 lead a little more than 4 minutes in. But they went 4:17 before scoring again and Murray State started to roll.
 
The smooth-shooting Young, who scored 43 points in the Knapp Center two years ago, hit three straight shots to launch a 15-3 run that pulled the Racers into a 20-13 lead. Dinnebier's second trey of the quarter cut the lead to 20-16 before Learn knocked down a 3 for a 23-16 Murray State lead at the quarter break.
 
After Aalsma swished a trey from the left corner to draw the Bulldogs to 27-19, they went six minutes before making another basket. Murray State built the lead to 37-21 and went into the half leading by 12.
 
The Racers started the second half with seven straight points as Drake's shooting woes continued and the Bulldogs never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way. Drake failed to score 20 points in any quarter, the first time that has happened since a 64-52 loss at UIC on Feb. 12, 2023.
 
"We struggled to find our way to the rim in the first half and finally started to get [interior looks] in the second half, but just could not get them to go down," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "We've got to be able to knock shots down. We had some young players log some great minutes and do some good things when they got out there. We're looking forward to getting back to work."
 
The 59 points were the fewest Drake has scored at home since a 69-53 loss to Missouri State on Jan. 15, 2022. That also was the last time the Bulldogs lost two straight games at home. Southern Illinois had won at the Knapp Center two days earlier.
 
Drake will try to bounce back in a road trip next week, playing at Missouri State on Friday night, Jan. 26, and at Southern Illinois on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 28.
 
 
NOTES

• Drake, suffering its second straight loss, slipped to 11-7 overall, including a 5-2 record in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• This marked the first time Drake had lost two straight home games since 2022 when it fell to Southern Illinois (60-49) on Jan. 13 and Missouri State (69-53) on Jan. 15.
• Drake also dropped back-to-back MVC games for the first time since losing road games at Missouri State Jan. 28 (64-54) and UNI (49-47) Feb. 1, 2023.
• This marked the fewest points scored by Drake in a home game since falling to Missouri State, 69-53, Jan. 15, 2022.
• Drake encountered its largest halftime deficit of any home game this season at 41-29 bettering its previous high halftime deficit of 45-35 against Iowa.
• Drake made 11 three-point baskets, seeing its record slip to 6-4 when marking 10-plus 3-point baskets in a game.
• Drake shot 29.6 percent (21-71) from the floor—its second lowest shooting percentage of the season. 
• Drake was held under 20 points in every quarter for the first time since the 2022-23 season in a 64-52 loss at UIC on Feb. 12, 2023.
• Drake senior guard Katie Dinnebier led Drake with 16 points, including eight in the first quarter.
• Dinnebier collected two steals to move into No. 6 on Drake career steals list at 235, surpassing Keisha Cox who had 234 from 1994-98
• Dinneibier made three three-point baskets, marking the ninth time this season she has made three or more treys in a game.
• Dinnebier also dished out a game-high seven assists.
• Drake senior Anna Miller added nine points along with a team-high seven rebounds before fouling out for the first time this season and just the third time in her career.
• Freshman Maggie Taylor played a career-high 16 minutes 57 seconds while matching her career high with seven points.
• Murray State earned its first victory ever against Drake in five outings.