Kathryn Sears
The Drake women’s basketball team overcame a sluggish start on the road to take down a much-improved Bradley team on Friday.
The Bulldogs chipped away at a first-half deficit and controlled the final 20 minutes to earn a 67-63 victory, their eighth in a row.
Drake is 10-5 overall and 4-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Bradley fell to 8-7 and 2-2.
“We (found a way to) get out of here with more points than they had,” coach Allison Pohlman said. “Ava Hawthorne made a couple free throws late to take a bit of pressure off our defense at the end. We did a lot of adjusting on the fly because of matchups, but the biggest takeaway is that we fought and scrapped as much as we could. We came out of the locker room (at halftime) inspired. We got paint points and took advantage of mismatches and forced difficult shots … there’s your formula there.”
Katie Dinnebier had her sixth 20-plus scoring game of the season with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting. She tallied eight steals to mark a career best and dished out seven assists while snaring five rebounds. Dinnebier became just the 16th player in program history to eclipse 1,600 points for her career.
Courtney Becker posted her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. She added four steals to set a new career best. Anna Miller rounded out Drake’s double-digit scorers with 10. She narrowly missed a double-double of her own with nine boards. Shannon Fornshell had a productive night with six rebounds.
The Bulldogs wrap up their tour of central Illinois on Sunday with a visit to Illinois State. Drake and the Redbirds are set for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
The Drake sports information department contributed this report.
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