November has hit the Knapp Center, and that means it is basketball season for the women’s and men’s teams at Drake University. Bulldog fans traveled around the nation for the first week of road and home game play, and the teams put on a show demonstrating their off-season practice.
The Drake women’s basketball team tipped off the season with a strong win on the road against Eastern Illinois University on Nov. 3. Drake was up 39-34 at the half before an explosive second half that led to an 83-65 Bulldog win. First-year Anna Becker led the scoring for Drake with 22 points, helping the team pull through.
The Bulldogs had 50 rebounds, 30.4% three-point shooting and 49.3% field goal rates as well. This game was a strong Bulldog display going into their home game against the Creighton University Bluejays on Nov. 9.
“We just rose to the occasion today,” head coach Allison Pohlman said. “It took us a little bit to get warmed up, but I loved what we did in the first quarter…we had to make some adjustments and figure out our advantages. Really proud of our response. Second and third quarters, our defense was on point. We gave up a couple offensive rebounds and open threes in the fourth, so [we] need to work on playing with a lead, but really rock-solid effort today.”
The women’s team then took on Creighton at 4 p.m. on Nov. 9 for what would be a back-and-forth battle to the end. Drake and Creighton had a close first quarter with a 22-16 score that left the Bluejays on top.
Going into the second quarter, Drake was outscored again, and the Bulldogs went into the locker room losing to the Bluejays with a 44-33 halftime score. In the third quarter, though, the Bulldogs outscored the Bluejays 23-21, and after the fourth quarter where both Creighton and Drake scored 18 points apiece. Drake fell to Creighton 83-74 to move the Bulldogs’ record to 1-1.
On the men’s side, the team took a similar turn to the women. The Bulldogs took on Northern Arizona University for the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon on Nov. 3. Drake had a slow start of 28-31 against Northern Arizona, but sped up in the second half of gameplay. The Bulldogs outscored NAU 49-40 in this half and left with a 77-71 point win.
“I’m so excited to be a Bulldog and just mostly happy for our guys,” head coach Eric Henderson said. “We brought in a whole slew of kids, and to be able to bring them together… not one of those guys played together. Not one. So, to continue to work on that connectivity, to continue to work on that chemistry is so huge. You want to be able to get a few wins along the way, too, and the resiliency we showed in the second half was terrific.”
The men’s team then took on Robert Morris University on Nov. 6 in the Knapp Center. RMU outshot Drake 40-35 in the first half, leaving the Bulldogs with room to grow coming out of the locker room.
Despite this slow start, Drake fired back at RMU in the second half by outscoring them 33-28. This left the teams tied and forced an overtime, where Drake was outscored 11-13, which led to an 81-79 score and a Bulldog loss.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to do a better job of making sure that we come out and dictate the flow of this game, and I thought at the end of the day Robert Morris probably did that,” Henderson said.
The women’s team will now take on the University of Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m., while the men’s team will face Simpson College at Drake on Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m. to celebrate the military in the Military Appreciation Game.
