DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake women's basketball team did everything it could against league-leading Murray State – except win the game.
 
The Bulldogs climbed out of an early hole to build a double-digit lead with some inspired stretches of play and were ahead twice in the final minute before Murray State pulled out an 89-88 victory in an entertaining game filled with big shots at the Knapp Center on Sunday afternoon.
 
Abbie Aalsma led Drake with 24 points and beat her defender on a drive to the basket to give the Bulldogs an 88-87 lead with 8.4 seconds left. After a Murray State timeout to advance the ball, the Racers got the ball to their top scorer, Halli Poock, and she hit a tough, well-defended shot on a drive from the left side for the game winner with 2.9 seconds remaining.
 
With a last chance, Aalsma couldn't get a running scoop to fall, and Drake's two-game winning streak ended with a disheartening loss.
 
Still, it was a great effort by the Bulldogs (6-13, 5-4), who lost at Murray State 95-67 just two weeks ago. They made four more field goals than the Racers, hit 11 3-pointers to just two for MSU, and outrebounded their opponent 38-36.
 
But two figures stand out as difference makers: Murray State outscored Drake 25-7 on free throws and 27-6 in points off turnovers. With that edge, the Racers (17-3, 8-1), moved a half-game ahead of idle Belmont in the MVC standings.
 
Aalsma again mixed drives to the hoop with long-distance accuracy, finishing 4-for-9 on 3-pointers and 9-for-21 overall. She also led the team with seven rebounds and six assists and made a steal.
 
Freshman Quinn Vice added 18 points for the Bulldogs on 8-for-11 shooting and hit two key shots in the final 61 seconds. Her big game, just three points short of her career high, came after she had scored only 13 in the previous five contests combined, none in the last two.
 
Maggie Taylor was strong off the bench with 14 points, five rebounds and three assists. She went 6-for-9 from the field and made both her free throws. Anna Becker contributed 13 points and four assists for the Bulldogs, who had assists on 25 of their 35 field goals.
 
Poock, the Valley's leading scorer, finished with 26 points and Sharneece Currie-Jelks added 18. The Racers, coming off a loss at UNI on Friday night, went 25-of-29 on free throws to offset their 2-for-18 shooting from behind the arc.
 
Drake stayed with the Racers stride for stride after falling behind 8-1, trailed just 44-41 at halftime and used a 6-point possession early in the second half to finally get the lead. It started with Becker making a reverse layup and then getting hit in the face on what was ruled a flagrant foul. Aalsma sank the two free throws for the infraction, Ava Hawthorne scored on a turnaround down low after the Bulldogs inbounded and suddenly, they led 47-46 with 8:37 left in the third quarter.
 
And that wasn't the end of it. Lexi Carlsen knocked down a triple from the left corner and Becker followed with a trey and layup on a feed from Carlsen to top off a 14-2 run that gave Drake a 55-48 lead. After two straight Murray State buckets, the Bulldogs answered with a 10-2 burst that Brooklin Dailey capped with a three from the left wing for a 65-54 cushion.
 
Vice buried a trey from the top of the key to beat the third quarter buzzer, sending the Bulldogs into the final period ahead 72-61 and whipping the Knapp Center crowd into a frenzy. Thirty-four seconds into the quarter, Becker buried a shot from behind the arc and Drake had its biggest lead, 75-61.
 
But after Aalsma sliced through the defense for a reverse layup with 8:25 to play, the Bulldogs went almost 5 minutes without scoring and Murray State rallied, running off 13 straight points to inch ahead 78-77 with 4:02 remaining.
 
Taylor converted a three-point play to end the Drake drought, but the Racers came right back with four straight points to take an 82-80 lead with 2:57 to go.
 
It was back and forth the rest of the way.
 
Taylor scored to tie it at 82, Poock hit two free throws to send her team back into the lead, Vice hit a turnaround in the lane and then the Bulldogs got a break when Poock made only one of her two free throws with 48.5 seconds left. They capitalized by getting the ball to the 6-foot-4 Vice for another bucket in the paint, putting Drake ahead 86-85 with 31 seconds left.
 
Then, in a scramble for a rebound, Murray State's Keslyn Secrist came up with the ball and hit a shot as she fell to the floor, returning the lead to the Racers and leading to the Aalsma-Poock exchange at the end.
 
"What a heck of a third quarter…got too careful, too tentative in the fourth," Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman said. "When we were on our run, so many people were getting involved and just got tight in the last quarter. When you get Murray State on a night they don't shoot it well you have to take advantage of that, and we did for the most part but came up a smidge short. We had a great gameplan with one day of prep and had a very motivated group that just didn't score more points than the other team."
 
Along with the tough loss, the Bulldogs were dealt a blow when sophomore guard Peyton McCabe felt awkwardly on defense near the end of the first half, had to be carried off the floor and did not return. She had played well in her 15 1/2 minutes of action, scoring five points and handing out two assists.
 
Drake heads to Bradley for its next game, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29. They'll return home to face UNI on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m.
 
 
Notes

• Drake's loss dropped its records to 6-13 overall and a 5-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
• The Bulldogs are now 2-7 at home this season.
• Drake shot 49.3 percent from the field, 47.8 percent from 3-point range, and 70 percent from the free throw line.
• The Bulldogs outrebounded Murray State 38-36.
• The Racers outscored Drake 27-6 off turnovers.
• Drake tallied 44 points in the paint, narrowly edging Murray State's 42.
• Abbie Aalsma led Drake's offensive attack with 24 points. She added seven rebounds and six assists.
• Quinn Vice chipped in with 18 points and five rebounds.
• Three Bulldogs were disqualified via fouls on Sunday as Taylor, Becker, and Brooklin Dailey fouled out.
• Maggie Taylor added 14 points while Anna Becker logged 13.
• Drake is now 5-4 all-time against Murray State and 2-2 vs. the Racers in Des Moines.