08 | sports
Dec. 09, 2015
SPORTS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Bulldogs’ perfect start meets its end with two consecutive losses Austin Cannon Beat Writer austin.cannon@drake.edu @NotAustinCannon After beginning the season with six straight victories, the Drake Bulldogs have lost two straight, the second defeat coming at the hands of the Green Bay Phoenix Sunday afternoon at the Knapp Center. Plagued by turnovers (22) and poor long-range shooting (3-for26 from three), Drake stood little chance against the 2015 Horizon League champions. Behind 30 points from Allie LeClaire, the Phoenix doubled a 12-point halftime lead in the third quarter and buried the Bulldogs, 86-61. It was a noncompetitive setback against a team Drake would like to emulate, a midmajor conference champion that makes it to the NCAA tournament on a relatively consistent basis. “We’ve got a long way to go,” head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “I just wish we would’ve competed better.” Drake could only muster five points from the field in the third quarter, the other seven coming at the free-throw line. In contrast, the Phoenix shot 56 percent to effectively end the game after 30
minutes of play. LeClaire spent her Sunday in Des Moines doing her best Steph Curry impression, making eight 3-pointers on 10 attempts. Mehryn Kraker and Jessica Lindstrom each added 13. Sara Rhine led Drake with a career-high 22 points. Lizzy Wendell followed close behind with 15. Besides Rhine, the bench only had three more points for the Bulldogs, who now face their first losing streak of the season. The Phoenix are a good defensive team and they spent most of the game pushing Drake’s offense toward half court, but head coach Jennie Baranczyk was more concerned with the careless, off-target passes. “I think they’re a tough defensive team, but I think a lot of it (was) just our breakdowns,” Baranczyk said. At one point in the second quarter, the Bulldogs turned the ball over five times in four minutes. Green Bay scored eight points off those turnovers. In all, they scored 30 points off Drake turnovers. The three-point shooting was another problem. The Bulldogs might not live and die by the three, but shooting only 11.5 percent from long-range will usually spell defeat, especially
with a player like LeClaire on the other sideline. “We just weren’t all there tonight,” Wendell said. “It’s happened before and it’s changed our team and given us what we need to push and get better so this could be that game for us this season.” The 6-0 start was, well, perfect. But after winning the twogame Lady Rebel Roundup, the Bulldogs lost an overtime thriller
at South Dakota on Wednesday night. Then there’s Sunday’s game, where the Bulldogs were pretty much finished midway through the third quarter. “We maybe needed this to shake us up a little bit, to see how far we really are,” Baranczyk said. The philosophy Baranczyk and her players preach is to always improve, whether it is on the next possession or the next game. That mindset was perhaps forgotten in
the last two games. “I think we kind of lost that, so we just have to get back to that this week,” Wendell said. The Bulldogs will get to re-evaluate for five days, and they’ll get a little bit of a break in their tough nonconference schedule. William Penn, a NAIA program, will visit the Knapp Center on Friday for a rare midday game. Tip is set for 11 a.m.
SAMMIE BACHRODT, a guard, fits well into Drake’s outside-focused strategy. However, this mentality hurt the team in their two losses, getting beaten on the boards by 28 rebounds combined across both games. Drake was outscored on second chance points by a combined margin of 25-7 as well. PHOTO BY BARON CAO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MEN’S BASKETBALL
CROSS COUNTRY
Bulldogs place third in tourney, Abrahamson shines
Huston, Fischer lead in final meets
Michael Wendlandt Beat Writer michael.wendlandt@drake.edu @shaus6
The up and down nonconference season continues for Drake Men’s Basketball. The team placed third in the Gulf Coast Challenge in Estero, Florida over Thanksgiving break, followed by a split the past week. The Bulldogs continue to show signs of growth both offensively and defensively, and look to finish strong with their last four nonconference games. The first game of the Gulf Coast Challenge was a revenge game that Drake fans had been waiting for. Western Kentucky is infamous in Des Moines for the big buzzer beater that eliminated Drake from the NCAA Tournament in 2008. The Bulldog faithful wanted vengeance, and they got it. Drake was down by doubledigits with less than two minutes to go in the first half, but that’s when the comeback began. Picking away at the Hilltoppers’ lead throughout the second half, the Bulldogs managed to take the lead with under five minutes to play. It was back and forth from there on out, with Western Kentucky tying the game at 68 with 1:20 to go. Redshirt junior Kale Abrahamson missed a 3-pointer with two seconds left in regulation that would’ve ended the game after forty minutes. Instead, overtime ensued. Drake took a four point advantage early in the extra period before the Hilltoppers came back to take a 79-78 lead. A layup from Abrahamson followed soon after by a Timmer free throw and a steal from Jacob Enevold Jensen got Drake back on top to secure the 81-79 overtime win against the Hilltoppers. It was the Big Ten transfers, Abrahamson and Graham Woodward, who led the way. Woodward poured in 18 points, including four three pointers, while Abrahamson set a new career high with 41 points. Abrahamson’s effort was good enough for seventh most points in a single game in Drake basketball history, and the most since 1980. It also set the record in the Gulf Coast Challenge. He only had 23 total shot attempts, of which he hit 13. Four three pointers and 11
free throws highlighted his stat sheet, not to mention his seven assists. The next game in the tournament was a tough game against Weber State, one of the top Ohio Valley Conference teams in recent memory. Behind 34 points from Jeremy Senglin, Weber State took it to the Bulldogs, defeating Drake 74-58. Drake got off to a great start, taking a 10-5 lead, but a 15-0 run early in the first half wrote the story as Weber State took a lead that wouldn’t be relinquished. Woodward led the Bulldogs with 18 points while guard Reed Timmer added 15. Drake then faced Pepperdine in the third place game. Timmer took the helm in that matchup, scoring 21 points while handing out five assists to lead Drake to a 69-53 victory. Drake dominated defensively, holding Pepperdine to only 38 percent shooting while the Bulldogs connected on 55 percent of their own shots. Throw in a 10 rebound advantage and it was a relatively easy game for the Bulldogs as they secured third place in the tournament. When they returned home, the Bulldogs took on UIC in the Knapp Center on November 28. Abrahamson and Timmer both chipped in 23 as the Bulldogs cruised to a 83-62 win. The other two guards also had an impact on the outcome as Woodward chipped in eight assists while C.J. Rivers pulled down a career high 13 rebounds. Finally, the Bulldogs traveled to Bowling Green to take on the Falcons. After losing to them last season, the Bulldogs wanted redemption, but they couldn’t quite pull it out and fell 75-63. Drake’s top flight three point shooting was held to only 21 percent, and that made a huge difference. Drake entered the game ranked fifth in the NCAA in 3-pt percentage, but fell out of the top 10 after the poor showing from behind the arc. Woodward and Timmer led the team in the game with 13 points each. Sitting at 4-4, Drake returns home Wednesday to take on DePaul from the Big East. DePaul will look to continue a resurgence back to prominence in the NCAA while the Bulldogs remain focused on growth. Tip-off for that game will be at 7 p.m.
Adam Rogan Sports Editor adam.rogan@drake.edu @Adam_Rogan
After months of focused preparation, the Bulldogs closed the cross country season out strongly in the biggest meets of the year over the past month and a half. Senior Emma Huston and junior Reed Fischer each led their teams, as they have all season, down the stretch. Injuries still plagued some runners, hurting the teams’ final rankings, but PRs and fast times highlighted 2015’s conference and regional meets. MVC Championship In one of his best performances of the fall cross country season, Fischer placed second in the race with a time of 24:00.47. He was one of 19 runners to average less than a five-minute mile. Indiana State’s John Mascari was the only athlete who finished ahead of Fischer. Mascari went on to place sixth at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship and qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championship. Griffin Jaworski (24:36.67), Chris Kaminski (26:07.36) and Ali Jandal (26:09.07) all finished in the top 50 for Drake as well. Robert McCann (26:46.24) rounded out the Bulldogs’ top 5. Their combined times led to a seventh place finish out of nine in the MVC. “We were hoping to have him in full-form by then, but we didn’t, so that was a big hit,” Fischer said. “Obviously we wanted to be a higher placing in the conference, but there’s only so much you can do about that.” On the women’s side, Huston wasn’t able to place quite as high as Fischer, but still logged a fourth place finish. Krista Maguire took 15th and Taylor Scholl was less than five seconds out of the top 20, finishing in 22nd. Cassie Aerts and Bailee Cofer closed out the Bulldogs’ top 5 in 35th and 46th place, respectively. The Women’s team finished in sixth place out of 10. “As a team, on the women’s side we had a really great conference meet,” Fischer said. “They were led by the four seniors all season and that was the same thing at conference.” NCAA Regionals The NCAA Midwest Regional Championship was Drake’s final,
and biggest, meet of the fall season. Over 400 athletes ran in the meet and the Bulldog runners performed admirably. The Women finished 18th out of 35 teams represented at the meet, ahead of some top opponents including Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern. “Every meet we continue to improve,” Huston said. “We usually have a big improvement (at Regionals) and the same happened this year.” The men took 24th out of 32 teams, two spots ahead of rival Creighton. Per usual, Huston and Fischer paced their respective teams, both of them cracking the top 20. Huston’s time for the 6K was 20:50.6. She finished in 17th place, just barely edged out by Oklahoma State’s Aurora Dybedokken with only two tenths of a second separating the two runners. “From her freshman year to her senior year (Huston) cut off over three minutes off of her time at the regional meet and moved up 130 spots,” Hostager said. “It really shows how much work they put in. It’s not just the work in the season … each year the work ethic has been tremendous.” Maguire and Scholl both finished in the top 100 as well, Maguire in 52nd with a time of 21:31.5 and Scholl in 97th at 22:06.4. “With (five) seniors on the women’s side it was great to see them finish their careers on a positive note,” Hostager said. Fischer performed just as well in his 10K, clocking a time of 30:26.3 in 20th place. Still, even with a strong placing he was disappointed in his finish, two spots shy of qualifying for nationals. “I was in about ninth place with 500 meters to go and I had a ticket booked to nationals and then in the last 400 meters I just completely hit the wall and felt probably the worst I’ve ever felt during a race,” Fischer said. “I was still all-region, which was my preseason goal, but as my season was continuing I was hoping to get a spot to nationals so it’s frustrating ... but compared to where I was last year it was a big jump forward.” The rest of the men’s team was unable to finish in the top half of the field as several team members were still dealing with injuries. Season Honors Huston and Fischer
each
received Division-I All-Region honors, two of five runners in the Missouri Valley Conference to be named. They were both also named to the MVC All-Conference first team, while Jaworski and Maguire each earned honorable mentions. Maguire, Huston and Fischer were tabbed as MVC Cross Country Scholar-Athletes. “It’s very fortunate to have such a dedicated group. Academics is always going to come first, but they are equally dedicated athletically,” Hostager said. “Our team GPA was ranked third in the nation for the cross country team (last year).” Rounding out Drake’s fall awards was Huston, who was granted the Women’s Elite 18 Award, an accolade given to a single individual who exemplifies excellence both in athletics and academics. Her fourth place finish at the MVC Regional and her 4.00 GPA as a pharmacy major is what garnered her recognition. Up Next With the track and field season now underway, the majority of Drake’s cross country runners will shift their focus to indoor competition, still under Hostager’s leadership. “(The seniors’) successful cross country season has really laid the foundation for a really good final track season,” Hostager said. Not only is the fall’s success going to help motivate the team for strong showings in spring, but it will also help the team continue to compete at a high level in the 2016 cross country season. The men’s team will be losing less than a fourth of their runners due to graduation, but the five seniors on the women’s side will leave only six returning runners. “It’s a big transition to have so many upperclassmen. The team is basically cut in half with all of us leaving, so I feel like that’s going to take its toll,” Huston said. “We definitely have people who are ready for that challenge … They’ll just have to keep up what they’ve been working on the last couple years and move up from there.” With how the underclassmen performed this year, there should be no worry about what the future holds for Drake Cross Country. “Regionals was a good hurdle to get over for the freshmen,” Fischer said. “I think they ran smart and in the next couple of years it’ll be really fun to see where they can be.”