Cody Goodwin

cgoodwin2@dmreg.com

There was no big celebration immediately after No. 22 Drake’s 70-57 win over Northern Iowa on Friday night. The Bulldog players retreated to their bench and lined up for the postgame handshake. Then they huddled up in the middle of the court, and waited.

It took a matter of seconds before the student section bum rushed the team at half court. The stoic faces on display quickly melted into looks of joy. The celebration went on for another 10 minutes, capped by Queen’s “We Are The Champions” blaring over the Knapp Center speakers.

“What an awesome environment,” Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “It honestly brings tears to my eyes to think about how important this game was just in terms of fans and them being able to come. It’s nothing but a lot of respect for both programs.

“For women’s basketball, it was awesome … I’m really proud of how far we’ve come — and, we’re not done yet.”

The Bulldogs’ victory is their 17th in a row, and pushed their overall record to 23-4 and their conference mark to 16-0. Even more, Drake clinched the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship outright, the first for the program since the 1999-2000 season.

“I’m just really proud of our team. Really happy,” point guard Caitlin Ingle said. “It’s a great moment for us. Like Jennie said, the best is yet to come, and that’s the best part. But it’s great to see how far we’ve come.”

With more victories over Missouri State and Wichita State next weekend, Drake can complete the first unbeaten conference season in the Valley since Southern Illinois did it in 1985-86. Friday’s victory came before a crowd of 6,456, the program’s largest attendance total since 2001.

The game itself took time to develop. Drake and Northern Iowa (20-8, 13-3) were tied just 8-8 after the first quarter, wherein both teams combined to shoot 6 of 29 from the field. The slop continued through to halftime, as the Bulldogs led 26-22 despite 12 turnovers to just nine field goals.

The game broke open early in the third, when Drake uncorked a 19-4 run to lead 47-34 entering the fourth. After 10 paint points in the first half, the Bulldogs produced 14 such points in the third quarter alone. They would end with 42 total points in the paint— 15 of which came on the fast break.

“We really started to run the floor better. Our tempo got going,” Baranczyk said. “You can credit UNI for that in the first half. I think part of that was we never really got into a flow. They really tried to keep people in the paint, but we’re better when we can move in and out.”

Four Drake players ultimately finished in double figures, led by Lizzy Wendell’s 21 on 8 of 15 shooting. Becca Hittner and Sammie Bachrodt combined for 16 in the opening half to help carry the Bulldogs, and finished with 12 and 10, respectively. Becca Jonas also scored 10 on 5 of 9 shooting.

Ingle turned in another gem, scoring nine points, dishing out eight assists and corralling six rebounds. The senior had just four assists in the first three quarters, but spent seemingly the entire fourth carving up the Panther defense.

“She’s a really good point guard with great vision,” Northern Iowa coach Tanya Warren said. “You have to be able to keep her in front of you. She’s extremely efficient. She’s going to make plays. You’re not going to be able to hold her down for the entire game. You have to try to contain her.”

Added Baranczyk: “There’s times when Caitlin can sneak a pass in, and it’s amazing. It really is. There are times when nobody else sees it but her, and that’s so impressive.”

Madison Weekly kept Northern Iowa afloat, scoring six of the team’s 18 total field goals and piling up 19 points. No other Panther had more than eight. As a team, they shot 18-for-64, good for 28.1 percent despite grabbing 20 offensive boards and putting up eight more shots than Drake (which went 29 of 56).

“I thought we defended well enough, but against Drake, you have to make shots,” Warren said. “If you don’t, it wears on your defense. We defended well enough. We just couldn’t make shots.

When the buzzer sounded, Drake players smiled and high-fived as they formed their postgame handshake line. It wasn’t until their peers joined them on the court that they allowed themselves to enjoy the moment.

Baranczyk said it felt good to clinch the league title and the top seed in the tournament, which starts in two weeks, but she added that this team has bigger goals in mind. And they start with both games next Thursday and Saturday.

“And,” Baranczyk said, “they’re both at home … if you haven’t seen these guys, or you want to see them again, you have to come.”

Cody Goodwin covers high school sports, college basketball recruiting and Drake athletics for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at (816) 582-0633, email him at cgoodwin2@dmreg.com, or send him a tweet at @codygoodwin.