By: Wichita State
ST. CHARLES, Mo.-A strong second half carried the top-seeded Wichita
State women's basketball team to a 73-58 victory over the nine-seed Drake
Friday afternoon at the Family Arena.
Four Shockers scored in double figures as WSU advanced to the MVC
Tournament Semifinals for the third-straight year. The Shockers will face the winner of today's
game between No. 4 Northern Iowa and No. 5 Indiana State at 1:35 p.m. Saturday
afternoon.
After a streaky first half that bled into the opening minutes of the
second half, WSU clamped down on defense and exploded on offense to out-score
the Bulldogs 24-3 over a seven-and-a-half minute stretch. Three-pointers from Michaela Dapprich
bracketed the run that turned a four-point deficit into a 14-point lead with
8:23 remaining in the game.
Dapprich, Chynna Turner, and Alex Harden each contributed 15 points to
top the Shockers in scoring. Michelle Price
contributed 10 points and nine rebounds in a spirited effort off the
bench. Liza Heap and Carly Grenfell tied
for the Drake lead with 11.
A Price layup early in the second half put Wichita State up 40-37 with
17:14 remaining in the game. Drake tied it at 40 with an Ashley Bartow
3-pointer and the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to put their lead at 44-40 at the
15:12 mark.
That would be the biggest lead Drake would have for the rest of the
game as Dapprich ended their run with long 3-pointer. Turner gave Wichita State
the lead for good with a pair of free-throws and her team never looked back. Turner's
jumper at the 12:22 mark capped a 9-0 run and put the Shockers up, 49-44.
Wichita St. out-rebounded Drake 38-28 and forced 20 turnovers. The Shockers shot 47% overall and held Drake
to 42%, including 32% (7-for-22) in the second half. Wichita St. also had the edge in points in
the paint (36-10), points off turnovers (28-15), and second chance points
(17-9).
After the Bulldogs scored the first four points of the game, Chynna
Turner opened up the scoring for the Shockers with a 2-point jumper. Drake went
on to take a 9-7 lead at the first media timeout.
Jasmine Jones stole the ball at the 11:19 mark and passed ahead to
Jessica Diamond for a layup that cut the Drake lead to 11-10. Drake was hot
from behind the arc however, and a Carly Grenfell 3-pointer with 8:29 remaining
in the half put the Bulldogs up, 20-14.
After Drake had gone up by as many as eight, the Shockers got back into
the game and took the lead with a 17-0 run. Alex Harden drove to the basket at
the 6:23 mark to start the Wichita State scoring spree, and Turner capped the
run four minutes later with back-to-back jumpers that put her team up nine,
34-25. Five different Shockers scored during the run and Michelle Price led the
way with six points.
The Bulldogs hit three consecutive shots from behind the arc to close
the half, including a long one from Kyndall Clark as the first half expired to
cut the Wichita State lead to 36-34. The Shockers shot 16-for-36 (.444) from
the field in the half and forced 10 turnovers. Harden and Price each had eight
points. Drake stayed in game with the 3-point shot, hitting 8-of-14 (.571).
The victory for WSU was the program's first in seven tries against
Drake in the MVC Tournament. The
Bulldogs knocked WSU out of the tournament last year.
Head Coach Jody Adams won an opening game in the MVC Tournament for the
fifth consecutive season. She is 5-4
lifetime in the Valley Tournament. The
Shockers are 1-6 lifetime in the semi-final round, with the lone win coming in
1997.