DES MOINES, Iowa – Katie Dinnebier's fifth game of 30-plus points this season kept the Drake women's basketball team unbeaten in Missouri Valley Conference play.
 
Dinnebier tossed in 31 points and Ava Hawthorne added 14 off the bench as Drake shook off a ragged start and rolled past Valparaiso 82-64 at the Knapp Center on Saturday afternoon, the Bulldogs' seventh straight victory. Her five 30-point games are the second most in NCAA Division I this season.
 
Drake (9-5, 3-0) broke open a close game with a 21-5 second quarter burst and led by as many as 27 late in cruising to its 19th straight league victory at home. It was the Bulldogs' fifth straight win over Valpo (5-9, 1-2), those victories coming by an average margin of 23.4 points.
 
The seven-game streak is the third longest of Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman's tenure. Drake had winning streaks of nine and 14 games last season, when the Bulldogs won a record 19 MVC games.
 
This latest 30-point outburst was Dinnebier's third in the last four games. The senior guard made 10 of 14 shots, including 6-of-8 from 3-point range, grabbed five rebounds, handed out four assists and made four steals. She's now shooting 52.2 percent for the season and averaging a career-best 20.3 points.
 
Her 31 points moved her past three others into 18^th place on Drake's career scoring list with 1,575 – six points behind No. 17 Tammi Blackstone. The four steals lifted her past Stephanie Schmitz into eighth place on the career list with 222.
 
Hawthorne, coming off the bench now after starting early in the season, reached double figures for the fourth time in the last six games and added two assists and a steal. She went 5-for-9 from the field with two 3-pointers.
Anna Miller contributed 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists plus four blocks, which raised her program-leading total to 252. Courtney Becker, coming off a career-high 26 points in Thursday night's victory over UIC, delivered six points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals – the three steals matching her career high.
 
Drake shot 50.9 percent for the game and hit 12 3s, the ninth time this season with at least 10. The Bulldogs built a 41-22 rebounding advantage and had assists on 22 of their 29 field goals, the fourth straight game with at least 20 and the eighth this season.
 
The Bulldogs were slow out of the gate, their first five possessions going blocked shot, turnover, turnover, turnover, missed 3-pointer as Valpo took a 5-0 lead. Shannon Fornshell broke the ice with a 3 from the left corner on a pass from Miller and Miller's high-low feed to Fornshell for a layup tied it at 5-all.
 
Valparaiso punctured Drake's zone defense for some open shots in the early going and led by as many as three before the Bulldogs closed the quarter with a Dinnebier trey and Miller's layup for their first lead of the game, 20-18. Valpo tied at 20 as the second quarter got under way but never led again as the Bulldogs tightened their defense and found their rhythm on offense.
Dinnebier knocked down a 3-ball and drove for two layups in a 12-0 run that produced a 32-20 lead. After a Valpo triple, the Bulldogs responded with a 9-2 burst to go up 41-25 and led 41-27 at halftime.
 
The Beacons pulled to 43-33 with back-to-back treys early in the third quarter but never got any closer. Drake steadily built its lead to 58-40, getting points from four different players in that stretch, and led 62-46 going into the fourth quarter.
 
Dinnebier finished her time on the floor with a flourish, accounting for all the points in a 14-2 run that left the Bulldogs ahead 79-52. First, she buried a three from the top of the key. After Leah Earnest, who led Valpo with 22 points, stole the ball and took it in for a layup, Katie went back to work. She hit Brooklin Dailey for 3-pointer, made a free throw, knocked down a 3 of her own, powered through the defense for a layup and fired a pass on a fast break to Hawthorne for a layup.
 
That forced a Valpo timeout, and the reserves finished the game for the Bulldogs, who'll hit the road for their next two outings – Bradley at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 10 and Illinois State at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12.
 
"We're feeling great," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "We had our third quarter run [on Thursday] and second quarter run today, so we need to figure out how to just start that way. But an excellent job figuring out how to get a win. There's a lot of conversation amongst our team, a lot of problem solving…the ultimate execution of the small details to fix some turnovers and get back in a flow. We're going to look back at this game and take away several things to learn [from]."
 
 
NOTES

• Drake, winning a season-best seventh straight game, improves to 9-5 including a 3-0 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• This marked the third time during Allison Pohlman's coaching career that Drake has won seven straight games
• Drake posted its 18th straight MVC home victory dating back to the 2022-23 season.
• Drake made 12 3-point baskets, improving its record to 6-3 when marking 10-plus treys in a game.
• Drake also collected 21 assists, marking the eighth game (including fourth straight) the Bulldogs dished out 20-plus assists in a game.
• Drake shot 50.9 percent (29-57) from the floor, marking the fourth straight game the Bulldogs shot 50 percent or better
• With the score tied at 20-20, Drake closed out the first half with a 21-7 run making six of their last eight shots. Katie Dinnebier fueled the surge with seven points.
• Drake senior guard Katie Dinnebier enjoyed her fifth 30-plus scoring game of the season, and seventh of her career, with a game-high 31 points, including 16 in the second half. That the second highest total number of 30-plus scoring games achieved by a player in the NCAA Women's Division I ranks, trailing only Florida State's Ta'Niya Latson who has six 30-plus scoring games this season.
• Dinnebier made six 3-point baskets, marking the third time this season with six-plus treys.
• Drake senior Anna Miller added 12 points along with eight rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots.
• It marked the seventh game this season Miller has blocked three or more shots and 46th time in her career.
• Sophomore Ava Hawthorne scored 14 points, including 10 in the first half.
• Courtney Becker tied a career high with three steals and Becker extended her streak to 16 consecutive made free throws
• Dinnebier entered today's game ranked No. 21 on the Drake career scoring list and moved up to No. 18 with 1,575 passing Julie Rittgers (1,559, 1991-95), Lindsay Wharton (1,564, 2004-08) and Kristi Kinner (1,566, 1991-95).
• Drake, winning its fifth straight game against the Beacons, improved its series record against Valparaiso to 18-2 including a 9-1 mark in Des Moines.