Drake squeaks by Loyola, wins third straight
Story by Ashley Beall
Photo by Jeremy Leong
The Drake women’s basketball team continued its hot streak on the road this past Sunday against Loyola and pulled out a 70-64 win over the Ramblers.
The Bulldogs are now 8-7 in Missouri Valley Conference play and are on a three-game winning streak.
Once again, junior Kyndal Clark led the way for the Bulldogs scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds and recording six assists.
This was a career-defining moment for Clark as she made her 91st 3-pointer, which was the first of her 3-pointers on the game, and she now holds the school record for three-point shots made in a single season that hasn’t been broken since 1996-1997 by Kiersten Miller.
Clark wasn’t the only one with a big game, though. Sophomore Ashley Bartow came out hot, scoring 13 points and notching seven rebounds while redshirt junior Carly Grenfell came off the bench and scored 11 points.
The freshmen who have shown growth throughout the season continued to make their mark on the team.
Freshman Lizzy Wendell, who was named MVC Newcomer of the Week for the sixth time this season, scored 15 points and had nine rebounds.
Both teams showed an enormous amount of effort as the score kept going back and forth.
Throughout the second half, the score had nine lead changes and six score ties.
Senior Troy Hambric, who led the ramblers with 23 points, edged the Ramblers over the Bulldogs 44-43 with 10:20 left in the second half.
The Bulldogs wouldn’t give up, though, and kept denying the Rambler’s rally attempts.
“One of the things we can learn today is we found a way to win a game,” said Drake head coachJennie Baranczyk in a Drake athletics press release. “That’s a hard thing when you are on the road in this conference and in late February. Finding a way and having a gut check. When it came down to needing stops and needing scores, we got it done.”
Throughout the game, both teams had 38 rebounds.
However, Drake continued to show its improvement from their past games and stepped up its offensive rebounds and had a 14-5 advantage.
“For Ashley (Bartow) to come up with four offensive rebounds was huge for us today,” Baranczyk said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well today, and her rebounding was big in helping us have 14 second-chance points. What I liked a lot was she didn’t hesitate. She played within the offense and when we needed a basket, she made some great baskets.”
The Bulldogs return to Knapp Center this Sunday against UNI this Saturday at 2:05 p.m.
