DES MOINES, Iowa ? Paced by a career-high 32 points from senior Rachel Maenpaa, the Indiana State Sycamores downed Drake by a score of 76-68 in the regular season finale to finish the year on a seven-game winning streak. ISU improved to 19-10, 12-6 MVC while the Bulldogs fell to 10-18, 5-13 MVC.
Maenpaa entered the game needing just 13 points to become the program's tenth player to score both 1,000 points and pull down 500 rebounds in her career. She reached that mark early in the game and didn't look back en route to posting her new career-high of 32.
Those 32 points are the most by a Sycamore since Melanie Boeglin scored 46 at Drake in a 92-87 victory last season.
Maenpaa connected on 12-of-21 field goals and 8-of-11 free throws in the victory. She added six rebounds and three assists as her final regular season game proved to be one of the best efforts of her career.
Forced into playing 34 minutes in the game because of foul trouble for Laura Rudolphi, Maenpaa sparked several key runs in the game.
Trailing 32-23 with 3:28 left in the first half, Maenpaa hit a jumper to cut the advantage to seven.
ISU would go on to eventually cut what was an 11-point Drake advantage down to just two points on a Maenpaa lay-up with 39 seconds left. Following a defensive stop, Angela Phillips missed an open 3-point attempt and Kara Schilli grabbed the rebound, fell out of bounds but got off a high jumper that glanced off the front of the iron to send both teams into the locker room with Drake leading 36-34.
Sophomore Leah Phillips converted a 3-point play right out of the gate in the second half to give ISU a quick 37-36 lead. That sparked a 7-0 mini-run by the Bulldogs to five them a 43-37 lead just two minutes after the break.
ISU battled back with back-to-back jumpers by Maenpaa, as well as lay-ups from Annie Bankhead and Angela Phillips to tie the score at 45 with 14:26 left in the game.
With 11:50 left, Drake's Ashleigh Brady drilled a jump shot to give the Bulldogs a 48-47 advantage. It proved to be the Bulldogs final lead of the game.
Indiana State embarked on a key 9-0 run from that point on, including a fast break 3-point play by Maenpaa plus another jumper and a 3-pointer by freshman Kelsey Luna. Luna's triple gave the Sycamores a 55-48 lead with 10:18 left.
Drake showed fight and a pair of Whorton free throws cut the lead down to 55-54 with 8:33 remaining, before Maenpaa hit two charity tosses to stretch the back to 57-54.
The Sycamores were solid at free throw line down the stretch as the ISU finished off the game by hitting eight of its final 10 charity tosses in securing the 76-68 road victory.
Angela Phillips hit 14-of-16 free throws to score 18 points and dish out four assists in the win. Rudolphi added 12 points the game, putting her in double figures scoring for 17 out of 18 MVC games this season.
The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Sycamores by a 37-32 margin. Drake jumped out to an 18-4 advantage on the boards in the first half and scored eight first half, second chance points. The Sycamore rebounding got tons better in the second half, eventually scoring 11 second chance points to Drake's 10.
With the victory, ISU finishes as the No. 3 seed for next week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Southern Illinois is No. 1, and will face the winner of No. 8 Drake/No. 9 Wichita State in Friday's first quarterfinal. No. 2 Illinois State will face the winner of the No. 7 Bradley/No. 10 Missouri State game in Friday's third game. Friday's second game will feature Evansville against Northern Iowa in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 contest.
No. 3 Indiana State will now prepare to return to Des Moines, Iowa on Friday, March 9 when they face No.6 Creighton at the Drake Knapp Center in the conference tournament. Tip-off is set for 9:30 p.m. (ET). ISU downed Creighton in the first round of last season's MVC Tournament. ISU swept the Bluejays this season, and have won six consecutive games versus Creighton.
