Drake pulls away late in MVC Tournament opener

MOLINE, Ill. — The talk of the Missouri Valley Conference had little to say in Friday’s opening act.

Shots didn’t fall. Turnovers piled up. And against an Illinois State team that top-seeded Drake doubled up in both regular-season matchups, the Bulldogs wobbled into the locker room with just a two-point lead.

“I don’t think we were really ourselves that first half,” freshman Becca Hittner said. “But we came back in that second half and showed who we were.”

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The Drake finish was much crisper, using the smooth offensive attack that propelled the Bulldogs to an undefeated romp through conference play. Drake opened the second half with seven straight points and rolled from there, upending Illinois State, 64-40, in Friday’s MVC tournament quarterfinal matchup at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill.

With the win, the Bulldogs (26-4) will face Wichita State in Saturday’s semifinal showdown at 1:30 p.m. The Shockers beat Southern Illinois in Friday's other quarterfinal.

Lizzy Wendell led Drake with 17 points on 7-for-15 shooting. Hittner added 14, with double-digit help from Sammie Bachrodt (12) and Nicole Miller (10).

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Despite 51- and 52-point victories over the Redbirds (8-23) this season, Drake missed its first eight shots and sported a modest 20-18 intermission lead after shooting 28 percent (8-for-29) in the first half. Illinois State never pulled ahead, but the Bulldogs’ performance in the opening 20 minutes was a far cry from the dominance Drake has shown most of the season.

"Honestly, I think a big credit goes to Illinois State,” Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “I thought they did a great job of really slowing us down, taking the paint away. They did a great job on the boards — that’s something that we’ve got to do a little bit better job with.”

Then, Drake hit the gas.

After back-to-back Bulldog buckets to open the third quarter, Caitlin Ingle scored five of Drake’s next seven points to ignite an 11-3 run, handing the top seed its first double-digit advantage, 31-21.

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Just 44 seconds later, Wendell buried a jumper to push Drake up 11 — 33-22 — with 4 minutes, 47 seconds to play in the third. The Bulldogs’ grip never dipped below double figures again.

“One of the things that this team does is they just continue to rely on the depth,” Baranczyk said, “and so as the game goes, I don’t think any of us ever lose hope or lose focus of, ‘We just need to play our way.’ No matter what, teams come at you in different ways. We can talk about every team in our league right now that’s done this, and it’s been close at some point.

“What’s been really outstanding for this season is this team continues to believe in each other even more as the game goes on.”

Even if the start doesn’t go as planned.

Dargan Southard covers preps, recruiting, Iowa and UNI athletics for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, The Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.