DES MOINES, Iowa – Wendi Bibbins recorded her second double-double of the year with 18 points and 10 rebounds but Indiana State's second half shooting went cold in an 85-64 loss at league-leading Drake Friday evening.
 
Indiana State (3-12, 1-3 Missouri Valley) trailed Drake by only nine points at halftime and shot a respectable, if not impressive, 42.8 percent from the field before intermission. But the break cooled off the hot hands from Terre Haute as the Sycamores shot only 23.8 percent in the third quarter and were outscored 22-12 in that frame.
 
That pushed Drake's lead to a 19-point advantage and the Bulldogs (10-7, 5-0) were able to coast towards their record 27^th straight conference win.
 
"The second half got away from us a little bit and that is what Drake does," Indiana State interim head coach Josh Keister said. "They are just really good offensively, their big kids hurt us inside. Those two are as good as anybody in the country. Our kids really played hard until the end and that is what I'm really proud of."
 
But despite a 21-point loss to a team that moved to No. 20 in the Mid-Major Rankings this week, bright spots continued to shine through in what was just the second game in Keister's interim tenure. For the second straight game the Sycamores posted 20-plus offensive rebounds, a mark not achieved prior to the change.
 
"It means how hard we are playing," Keister explained. "That stat - an offensive rebound - is based purely on hustle. It is whether your kids are going to go to the glass and get that ball or out-hustle the other team. There's no other way around it, when you look at the offensive boards. As small as we are against them on the defensive end, for our kids to grab 20 offensive boards against a bigger team speaks for itself."
 
Also for the second consecutive game Indiana State registered more assists than turnovers, something that had only happened twice prior to the coaching change and only once against a Division I opponent.
 
"That is a huge stat for us," Keister said of the all-important assist-to-turnover ratio. "Every team wants to have more assists than turnovers. We were able to do that again tonight and hopefully that is something you are going to continue to see from us."
 
In the end Drake exposed a height advantage to their benefit, scoring 54 points in the paint while the Sycamores scored just posted 24. And the Bulldogs put up 33 points from their bench with a roster that was able to give almost 10 players over 15 minutes of playing time.
 
In turn, and with Indiana State still recovering from nearly the whole team being affected by the flu last week, that forced Kesiter and his staff to get creative in Friday's playing time.  
 
"There are a lot of good things to take away from this," said Keister. "I know our kids aren't satisfied with just playing three quarters of the game - but Drake will do that to you. They have so many different weapons and so many different kids that will step up and score. They are just a very difficult team to play against. We have to rebound from this and get ready to play another one on Sunday against a good Northern Iowa team."
 
Drake was led by Sara Rhine's 24 points and 10 rebounds while Becca Jonas (16) and Brenni Rose (12) each scored double-digits as well.
 
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