Story by Ashley Beall
Photo by Morgan Cannata
A game of runs — that’s what the women’s basketball game against Creighton was on Saturday. Unfortunately, it ended with Drake’s downfall, 98-71.
“Creighton is a very, very good basketball team,” Drake head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “They are experienced, and they have great chemistry. I’m proud of my team, though. We showed we had some runs in us, but we are still learning how to make sure we quickly contain other teams’ runs.”
Morgan Reid led the team in scoring with 16 points and Kyndal Clark contributed 13 points. Creighton, who is currently ranked second in the Missouri Valley Conference, played a tough defense that made it difficult for Drake to penetrate.
“They exposed us, and we exposed them,” Baranczyk said. “They just hit all their shots that exposed us, and we need to knock some of those down.”
The Bulldogs jumped the gun and led in the first half with a 7-1 run. Creighton quickly retaliated with six 3-pointers in the following 10 minutes.
“It comes with maturity. It’s a game of runs,” Reid said. “We need to build on that and keep going.”
Marissa Janning led Creighton with 22 points and helped Creighton defeat the Bulldogs. McKenzie Fujan added 20 points.
“We wish we could have dictated more shots, they had great looks and they put them in,” Clark said.
The Bluejays shot 65 percent from the floor and had a strong offense against the Bulldogs in both halves.
“It’s hard for any team to come out and shoot like that both halves especially when they’re not on their home court, and that’s kind of what we were hoping for,” Clark said.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and the Bluejays pulled away from the Bulldogs in the second half by scoring 13-straight points, creating a gap Drake just couldn’t close.
The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 50 percent from behind the arc and 44 percent from the field. They also shot well from the free throw line, sinking 17 of 21 attempts.
The Bluejays currently lead the Valley in three point shooting and shot 46 percent from behind the arc on Saturday. Janning led the team in 3-pointers with five.
“We just played our game. We gave them our best shot and not that that’s the best we can play, but we played hard and we played together and our shots were falling. They kind of came back and hit a shot, and we kind of backed down and took a step back. We have a young team and that’s something we’re working on,” Clark said. “Hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have it all figured out, and we’ll keep making those runs until the end of the game.”
The Bulldogs will take on Illinois State on Friday, Feb. 8 in Normal, Ill.
