Drake women’s basketball saw a two-game week to end the 2024-25 regular season with games against Valparaiso University and the University of Illinois-Chicago in a 1-1 week record.
After beating the University of Northern Iowa Panthers 80-79, the Bulldogs were ready to take on the court again. Drake took the court again in Indiana to take on the Valparaiso Crusaders on March 6. Drake went into the game with a 14-4 conference record that provided the team the hope of climbing the Missouri Valley Conference standings before the end of the season.
The game started out slow for both programs as the Crusaders outshot the Bulldogs by only 20-15 in the first quarter. Drake then blew past the Crusaders in the second quarter, only letting Valparaiso score four points in ten minutes. The Bulldogs went into halftime with a 35-24 lead that brought hope into the locker room for what could have been a strong win on the road.
In the second half, though, Valparaiso had the one up on Drake in both quarters. The Crusaders outshot the Bulldogs 19-18 in the third quarter while blowing past the Bulldogs 23-12 in the fourth. Valparaiso was able to knock the Bulldogs off with a 66-65 win at home, leaving the Bulldogs going into the last game of their season with a 19-10 overall record and a 14-5 conference record.
“Valpo really took it to us,” head coach Allison Pohlman said. “We didn’t have an answer for Leah Earnest; she got downhill all night. We had energy in spurts, did a nice job to get up going into halftime, but they took us out of what we like to do and played extremely physical.”
The Bulldogs then traveled to Chicago to take on the UIC Flames on March 8, National Women’s Day, in an end-of-season battle for both programs. Drake yet again started off the game slowly, with only a 14-11 lead against the Flames in the first quarter. The Bulldogs followed this with a 10-9 second-quarter score, leaving the Bulldogs up 24-20 going into halftime. After halftime, though, the Bulldogs were able to pull away with a high-scoring third and fourth quarter that left the Flames in the dust.
Drake beat the Flames 69-49, moving the Bulldogs into a tie for third place in the Valley with a 15-5 record. The Belmont Bruins tied with the Bulldogs, while Murray State and Missouri State sit tied for the conference lead with 16-4 records. The Bulldogs may not be leading their conference, but the team is ready for whatever is coming their way through the rest of March.
“We are really excited,” sophomore Brooklin Dailey said. “It’s crazy that it’s March and everything we have put into this season is for this week, but at the same time we are just going to keep getting better one day at a time.”
These standings and game statistics will be looked into by the Arch Madness selection committee in terms of team seeding going into the women’s MVC championship tournament that is March 13-16.
“What a great response by our team at different points in the game,” Pohlman said. “To start as slow as we did then come together in a timeout and choose to make a change…our defense really stood up. On a day when our offense wasn’t really flowing, we did a nice job digging in and getting stops.”
The Bulldogs’ season is now over and will be continued in the postseason during the MVC tournament March 13-16. Drake will sit around the third or fourth seed based on current standings and will look towards the possibility of March Madness still being in sight if the Bulldogs win the tournament championship. Stay tuned for live seeding and score updates online at the MVC women’s basketball website.
