CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Native Iowans Katie Dinnebier of Drake and Maya McDermott of UNI put on another show as the Bulldogs visited Cedar Falls for their first of three straight road games to end the 2024-25 regular season. The Bulldogs survived a late push by the Panthers to earn the 80-79 win.
 
Drake's victory marked its 20th of the year as Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman became the only coach in program history to win 20 or more games in their first four seasons at the helm. No other head coach has done it more than twice.
 
Dinnebier stepped into a pull-up triple for the first points of the game after UNI's Ryley Goebel swatted Anna Miller off the glass on Drake's initial possession. Dinnebier, who became the 10th player in program history to score 1,900 career points with her first bucket, got the ball back on the Bulldogs next trip down, this time in the paint where she spun around the Panthers' premier guard Maya McDermott for a deuce. McDermott answered with a 3-pointer of her own to get UNI on the board.
 
Dinnebier continued her hot start with another three as she scored Drake's first eight points of the afternoon. Ava Hawthorne was the first non-Dinnebier to score for Drake as her transition three came up short, but the Ames native chased down her own miss and put it back up and in, forcing UNI head coach Tanya Warren to burn a timeout.
 
The Bulldogs (20-9, 14-4) nearly grew their first quarter lead into double figures, reaching a 9-point difference twice, but four consecutive Goebel points halted Drake's effort to pull away. Abbie Aalsma and Brooklin Dailey then hit successive triples as Drake took a 25-18 lead into the quarter break.
 
UNI (15-14, 10-8) catapulted itself right back in it during the first 62 seconds of the second frame. The Panthers' Shateah Wetering and Goebel picked off two straight Drake passes and hosts capitalized, cutting their deficit to just three points and prompting a Drake timeout. The two teams traded blows as the clock ticked towards halftime. Led by Dinnebier's 19 first-half points, Drake went into the locker room leading 43-36.
 
Drake's lead finally ballooned into double digits on the first possession of the second half. The Panther defense forced Drake to use nearly the entirety of the shot clock, but graduate forward Courtney Becker nailed a 3-pointer from the wing to beat the buzzer. Aalsma added another trey from an almost identical spot on the floor on the Dogs' next trip.
 
Despite holding UNI at bay for much of the third, Drake still found themselves in a scoreless spurt of nearly three minutes. They looked to their leading scorer in Dinnebier to snap that streak, and she did just that with an up-and-under layup and followed that with a traditional 3-point play and two free throws to reach 30 points for the day. It marked her ninth 30-plus point game of the year, adding to her NCAA lead in that category. She also passed both Jill Martin (2003-08) and Carla Bennett (1999-03) to climb to eighth on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list.
 
Drake led 61-50 with a quarter to play.
 
Northern Iowa flipped their offensive switch to start the fourth quarter as Goebel and Emerson Green scored the first five points of the period. Drake answered via a Peyton McCabe 3-pointer that banked home off glass, but the Panthers continued to chip away at the Drake advantage. McDermott finally found a little rhythm for the Cats with four straight points before another Drake giveaway. The star guard canned a three on their next trip to slash the lead to 66-63 with six minutes left. Dinnebier then hit from deep and fed Aalsma in transition after UNI coughed it up to quickly get the difference back up to 10.
 
McDermott gave the Bulldogs everything they could handle in the final five minutes with another 3-pointer. She was joined by Emerson Green's step-back jumper as the timer moved under three minutes. The Panthers had all five fouls to use and did so to extend the contest as long as possible. Drake held on to a 5-point lead with 45.3 seconds remaining.
 
Kayba Laube, the best 3-point shooter in the Missouri Valley Conference this season and the history of UNI women's hoops, finally got into the scoring column with her first points of the game on a putback lay-in to cut Drake's margin to three. Northern Iowa was forced to foul as the clock wound under 30 seconds. Dinnebier hit two free throws to stay perfect from the line for the game and give the Bulldogs two additional insurance points.
 
UNI inched closer with a McDermott floater and fouled again, this time sending Hawthorne to the charity stripe. Hawthorne split the freebies to make it a 4-point game. The Panthers' hope was still alive, though, as McDermott banked in a desperation heave with 1.1 seconds on the ticker. Katie Dinnebier got loose on the ensuing inbound and evaded a UNI foul as time expired and Drake held on to win, 80-79.
 
"What a great environment here [at the McLeod Center] today," said Pohlman. "We have a special group of seniors and so does UNI, and [the fans] showed up to support here. I'm so, so proud of our resiliency. You knew UNI would have a run in them, and I wish it wasn't as close, but we're getting so much better in certain situations and making the necessary plays to win. The execution piece…just layers of understanding time and score and where we need to be. Proud of our team today."
 
Katie Dinnebier scored 36 points on 12-of-20 shooting including a rate of 70 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. She added seven assists, three steals, and a perfect 5-for-5 day at the free throw line. She also passed both Jill Martin (2003-08) and Carla Bennett (1999-03) to climb to eighth on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list. Dinnebier now owns 1,934 career points.
 
Ava Hawthorne was the only other Bulldog in double figures with 12 points. Courtney Becker and Anna Miller both narrowly missed out on double-doubles as each logged nine points plus 10 rebounds and 11 rebounds, respectively. Becker and Miller also mirrored each other with five assists apiece.
 
The Bulldogs will remain on the road for their final two matchups of the 2024-25 regular season. Drake is slated to visit Valparaiso on Mar. 6 and UIC in Chicago on Mar. 8 before traveling to Evansville, Ind. for the MVC Women's Basketball Tournament.
 
 
NOTES

• Drake improved to 20-9 overall including a 14-4 record in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• Drake's victory marked its 20th of the year as Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman became the only coach in program history to win 20 or more games in their first four seasons at the helm.
• Drake is now 9-3 in road games this season with two more on deck.
• Drake shot 52.6 percent (30-57) from the floor, improving to 9-1 when shooting 50 percent or better.
• Drake dominated the glass with 40 rebounds to UNI's 22. All 20 of Drake's victories this season have come when the Dogs win the rebounding battle.
• Drake is now an even .500 (4-4) in games decided by five points or fewer.
• The Bulldogs hit 13 3-pointers to tie their second-best total in a single game this year. Their .464 3-point percentage is also the second highest this season.
• Drake dished out 26 assists to match their second best in a single game this year.
• Saturday marked the 17th time Drake has scored 80 points or more in a game this season. The Dogs are 14-0 when reaching that threshold.
• The Bulldogs outscored UNI 17-11 in second chance points, 18-12 in bench points, and 9-6 in fast break points.
• Katie Dinnebier scored 36 points on 12-of-20 shooting including a rate of 70 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. She added seven assists, three steals, and a perfect 5-for-5 day at the free throw line.
• She also passed both Jill Martin (2003-08) and Carla Bennett (1999-03) to climb to eighth on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list. Dinnebier now owns 1,934 career points.
• Ava Hawthorne was the only other Bulldog in double figures with 12 points.
• Courtney Becker and Anna Miller both narrowly missed out on double-doubles as each logged nine points plus 10 rebounds and 11 rebounds, respectively.
• Becker and Miller also mirrored each other with five assists apiece.
• Drake has won 19 of the last 22 meetings with Northern Iowa and leads the all-time series by a 75-27 margin.
• Drake is now 28-18 against UNI when playing in Cedar Falls.