The Northern Iowa women’s basketball team took a shot this past weekend as they lost their one game of the week to the Drake Bulldogs, 70-57. Drake, 21st in the nation, clinched the one seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament (MVC) and the regular season championship.

UNI will be able to clinch second place this weekend with a win against Missouri State (MSU), or if the Panthers beat Wichita State and MSU loses one other game.

Their contest against Drake was extremely close. At the end of the first quarter, the score was tied at 8-8 and looked like another overtime affair between the two teams might occur. The second quarter saw Drake start to pull away despite a few ties and even a lead change at 16-14 that put UNI up very briefly.

The second half was just as close and Drake squeaked to a 26-24 lead. UNI was able to pull the score within two, but Drake found their groove started to pull away mid-third quarter, finishing up 47-34. The Panthers were never able to close the gap to single digits in the fourth and were behind by a 13-point margin at the end of the third.

Senior Madison Weekly led the team with 19 points and three assists. Freshman Megan Maahs also put in extra effort by putting up seven points and a game high nine rebounds. Both players led UNI with 34 minutes apiece, the only players to break the half hour mark for either team.

The Panther’s next game will be Thursday night against Wichita State; tipoff will get underway at 7 p.m. Then UNI’s Senior Night away game against MSU and will start at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

These next two games will decide the No. 2 – No. 5 seed for the Valley Tournament and could be resume builders for postseason play.