The Drake Bulldogs traveled to UNI on Wednesday looking to defeat their conference rivals. The two teams had a closely contested game earlier this season that came to the very last second which ended in a Panther victory as Maya McDermott hit a clutch buzzer beater to stun the Bulldogs. 

The Panthers started the game on fire from behind the arch, making six threes in the first seven minutes of play. Cynthia Wolf had the most threes in the quarter with two, including the first points of the game. UNI had two separate runs in this half to keep the Bulldogs out of the game for the first quarter. The first run was 11 points followed by a run of eight points shortly after. The Panthers led the Bulldogs 24-8 in what Head Coach Tanya Warren called “the best quarter we’ve played all year.”

Unfortunately for UNI, that wasn’t the only quarter of the first half. In what Warren called “the worst quarter we’ve played all year,” the Panthers scored a meager two points in the entire quarter of play. The two points made it the lowest scoring quarter in the entire history of UNI women’s basketball. Drake’s defense was on point and their offense was not too far behind as they scored 15 points in the second. The Panther offense may not have been clicking but they managed to get a moral victory heading into the locker room by not letting the Bulldogs score in the final two and a half minutes of the half. The Panthers managed to still be leading 26-23 as they looked ahead to the final half. 

The Panthers continued to be inconsistent in the third until Wolf connected from three yet again to give the Panthers a much needed spark. The Panthers and Bulldogs traded back-and-forth for a majority of the third quarter until Drake found an opening and put up nine points to UNI’s two. Drake was up 38-36 going into the final quarter. 

While both UNI and Drake started off slow in the fourth quarter, it would be the Bulldogs who would pull away first. UNI’s defense would once again take center stage as they would not let the Bulldogs score for six straight minutes in the middle of the quarter while the Panthers would go on a run to tie the game up going into the last minute and a half of play. The Bulldogs struck first after the tie going up by two, but it would again be tied up after two clutch free throws by McDermott. The Panthers defense would once again shine with a shot clock violation, locking down the Bulldogs on their final possession. McDermott would get the ball in her hands at the last few seconds of the game and sealed the game for the Panthers with an amazing floater at the buzzer. UNI would win the game 49-47.

McDermott led the team with 12 points while Emerson Green followed with 11. Wolf had nine points, all of them being from behind the 3-point line. Wolf also had three blocks and a steal. Kayba Laube and Kam Finley had two seals each. Grace Boffeli led the team on the boards with 11 rebounds.