ST. CHARLES, Mo.—For the second straight year, the Drake University Bulldogs denied the University of Evansville women’s basketball team a spot in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament final on Saturday, as Drake outlasted the Purple Aces, 46-41, in a defensive slugfest at Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri.
For Evansville, it was a stretch of 13 minutes and 28 seconds in which the Purple Aces could muster just two points that was UE’s undoing. Evansville was able to grab a 21-13 lead on Drake with 1:38 to play before the half on a jumper by senior guard Courtney Felke, but the Bulldogs would use a 19-2 run over the next 13:28 to grab a nine-point lead, 32-23, with just 8:30 to go.
Sophomore forward Anaris Sickles would finally snap Evansville’s drought with back-to-back jumpers in the lane to get UE back to within just five points, 32-27, with 7:39 to play. The Bulldogs would hold between a four and eight point lead for much of the game’s final five minutes before a 5-0 spurt by UE’s Rebekah Parker and Ashlee Barrett in the span of just seven seconds would cut the Drake lead to 40-38 with 51 seconds to play.
Drake’s Monique’ Jones, a 56.9 percent free throw shooter on the season, would step up to hit three of four free throws in the game’s final minute though, and the Bulldogs would go 5-of-6 from the line as a team down the stretch to hold off the Purple Aces and hand UE its second MVC Semifinal loss to the Bulldogs in as many years.
“If you would have told me before the game that we would hold Drake to just 46 points defensively, I would have thought that we would have won the game,” said UE head coach Tricia Cullop. “But, tonight, we just could not get our offense started.
“Drake did a great job of taking away a lot of the things that we like to do, and they made it very tough for Rebekah (Parker) and Courtney (Felke) to get going offensively. We also rushed some shots because of their defensive pressure, and some people who have been shooting extremely well for us of late, could not buy a bucket tonight.
“This is a very tough loss because I am so proud of what this team has accomplished this year, and each and every player gave me everything they had tonight, but we just came up short. Hopefully, we are not done playing basketball this season, because I feel like our kids have worked hard enough and have accomplished enough to keep going. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Evansville could possibly earn an automatic bid into the Postseason WNIT tomorrow afternoon, should Illinois State knock off Drake in the State Farm MVC Tournament title game at 2:05 p.m. If the top-seeded Redbirds win the Valley title and advance on to the NCAA Tournament, Evansville will receive the MVC’s automatic bid into the Postseason WNIT, as each league across the country receives an automatic bid for the highest seeded team that does not advance on to NCAA Tournament play. Should Drake win the title, Evansville will have to wait until Monday night to discover its postseason fate.
Sickles led Evansville with a career-high 14 points, while also grabbing a team-best nine rebounds in 22 minutes of action off of the UE bench. Drake’s Jill Martin led all scorers with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Jones added 12 points and eight boards.
With the victory, Drake improves to 22-9 overall. Evansville, meanwhile, falls to 20-11 on the season.
