DES MOINES, Iowa – A big second-half surge and career highs from Abbie Aalsma and Grace Knutson weren't quite enough as the Drake women's basketball team lost for the first time this season, 83-74 to Creighton at the Knapp Center on Sunday.
 
Trailing by as many as 14 points, the Bulldogs (1-1) twice got to within four in the fourth quarter, but Creighton (1-1) countered each time to keep it from getting any closer.
 
Aalsma and Knutson did what they could to get the Bulldogs over the hump.
 
Aalsma is taking on a much bigger role this season following the graduation of Katie Dinnebier, Anna Miller and Courtney Becker and has responded in a big way. She scored 23 points in this one, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range and shooting 8-for-13 overall.  This after she scored 22 in a season-opening victory at Eastern Illinois.
 
Knutson, a sophomore who averaged just 2.4 points a game last season, added 20 points, also on 8-for-13 shooting. Recruited for her perimeter prowess, the 5-foot-10 guard drove the ball into the paint for all but one of her eight field goals and tacked on four rebounds and three assists.
 
Freshman Quinn Vice played a key role in Drake's comeback and finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks. Maggie Taylor led the Bulldogs with seven rebounds, while Ava Hawthorne had a team-best five assists to go with seven points and five rebounds.
 
Drake outrebounded the Bluejays 38-36, but Creighton knocked down 12 3-pointers in the game, including nine in the first half to put the Bulldogs in an early hole.
 
Creighton led from the start, hitting its first four shots and leading by as many as nine in the first quarter. The Bluejays, picked to finish fifth in the Big East after finishing second to UConn last season, stretched their lead to 43-30 before settling for a 44-33 edge at halftime. The Bulldogs shot only 37.5 percent in the opening half and never got into a flow offensively.
 
They turned it around in the second half, however, and made it a game.
 
Creighton was leading 59-45 midway through the third quarter when Drake rattled off seven straight points in 52 seconds, with the 6-foot, 4-inch Vice right in the middle of things. She scored on a putback and slick turnaround in the lane and Aalsma buried a trey, cutting the lead to 59-52 and getting the crowd back into it.
 
Aalsma's driving layup and Vice's deuce on a feed from Hawthorne pulled the Bulldogs to 62-56. Creighton built its lead back to 69-56, but the Bulldogs clawed back again, scoring eight straight points, four of them by Knutson, to trail 69-64.
 
An Aalsma triple from the top of the key drew the Bulldogs to 71-67 and they got to within four again when Knutson drove for a hoop, making it 73-69 with 2:43 to play. The Bulldogs got no closer as Creighton's Kiani Lockett hit a back-breaking basket when she drove down the lane and scooped the ball into the hoop to beat the shot clock, making it 77-69 with 1:05 remaining.
 
The Bluejays sank six straight free throws in the final 21.6 seconds to wrap up their fourth straight victory in this series between former Missouri Valley Conference rivals.
"It would've been nice to play the way we did in the third quarter all day," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "We came out of the locker room and did a nice job playing at our pace, established some positive things offensively and defensively. We had a number of point-blank shots that just didn't fall…we're getting those opportunities but we have to focus and step up and make them."

Lockett led Creighton with 25 points, including 19 in the second half. Freshman Neleigh Gessert hit five 3-pointers in scoring all of her 17 points in the first half, while former UNI standout Grace Boffeli added 11 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Drake will return to action on Thursday night when it faces another longtime rival, taking on Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
 
Notes

• Drake leveled its record to 1-1.
• The loss snapped a streak of Drake winning four straight home openers dating back to 2021.
• Drake, which dropped its fourth straight game to Creighton, still leads the overall series against the Bluejays, 43-31.
• Creighton led the entire game.
• Drake shot 41.3 percent (26-63), including 38.1 percent (8-21) beyond the 3-point arc.
• Drake out-rebounded Creighton, 38-36.
• The Bulldogs had 22 fast break points compared to 12 by Creighton.
• Abbie Aalsma led Drake with a career-high 23 points, including 13 in the second half.
• Aalmsa also drilled a team-high five three-point baskets
• Sophomore Grace Knutson added a career-high 20 points including 12 in the second half
• Freshman forward Quinn Vice came off the bench, scoring a career-high 11 points, all in the second half.
• The Bulldogs will travel to Iowa Thursday in a game which will be televised on the Big Ten Network.