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The Basics \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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The Basics The Bulldog women are riding a 2-game winning streak after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-400276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Bulldog women are riding a 2-game winning streak after beating UIC on the road and returning to Des Moines for a victory over Southern Illinois in their MVC home debut. Drake is now set for a challenging road trip to Belmont (Jan. 9) and Murray State (Jan. 11).
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\nBulldog Breakdown
\nDrake improved to 3-0 in MVC play with a gutsy 89-75 win over SIU in their last contest.
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\nAfter posting a career best 30 points vs. UIC and another 29 against SIU, Abbie Aalsma<\/a> was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week. Aalsma ranks fourth in The Valley with a 3-point percentage of .347. She has made 34 triples in 98 attempts.
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\nAs a team, Drake is second in the MVC with a team field goal percentage of .423 (330-780).
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\nThe Bulldogs also rank second in the league with a rebounding margin of 4.2. They also keep opponents off the boards at the best reate in the conference with rivals averaging 35.3 rebounds per game.
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\nDrake is also second in the Missouri Valley Conference with 239 total assists and top the conference with 18.4 assists per game. Drake also boasts the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league at 1.09. Ava Hawthorne<\/a> leads the Bulldog team and ranks 11th in the Missouri Valley Conference with an average of 3.3 assists per game.
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\nKey Players
\nAbbie Aalsma<\/a> | 16.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.3 pg
\nGrace Knutson<\/a> | 11.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.0 apg
\nMaggie Taylor<\/a> | 8.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.7 apg
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\nScouting Belmont
\nBelmont enters the weekend an 8-7 overall and 4-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Bruins have won their last three matchups, all of which came against MVC foes, after their most recent loss in a home tilt against Duke. The Bruins had one of the nation’s toughest non-conference schedules with early battles against Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio State, Princeton, and Kentucky.
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\nDrake leads the all-time series with Belmont by a 5-2 margin. The Bulldogs and Bruins split last season’s meetings with each team winning on the road. Drake is 2-1 against Belmont at home and 2-1 vs. the Bruins in Nashville. Belmont is looking for its first home win over Drake since the 2023 season. 2023 also marked Drake’s largest margin of victory over Belmont with a 94-63 result at the Knapp Center.
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\nBart Brooks is in his ninth season leading the Bruins. He has put together an impressive
\nrecord of 206-75 during his tenure in Nashville.
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\nKey Players
\nJailyn Banks | 15.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.4 apg
\nHilary Fuller | 14.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.2 bpg
\nAvery Strickland | 10.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.3 apg
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\nScouting Murray State
\nDefending Missouri Valley champion Murray State currently sits at 12-2 overall and is 2-0 in conference action. The Racers have been on a roll of late, winning their last 10 games. Murray State is coming off a 93-82 win over Bradley after a 101-93 victory in a thriller with Illinois State. The Racers will take on UNI on Jan. 9 before welcoming Drake to the CFSB Center on Sunday afternoon.
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\nDrake also leads the all-time series with Belmont by a 5-2 margin. The Racers took two of three meetings last year with Drake’s victory coming on the road in Murray. The Bulldogs are 3-0 all-time when playing at Murray State and average 86.6 points per game against the Racers.
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\nMurray State is led by head coach Rechelle Turner, who has amassed a record of 148
\n111 in her nine seasons at the helm.
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\nKey Players
\nSharnecce Currie-Jelks | 20.5 ppg, 12.1 rpg, 1.5 spg
\nHalli Poock | 19.1 ppg, 3.6 apg, 2.9 rpg
\nHaven Ford | 16.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 4.1 apg
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\nUp Next
\nDrake will be back in Des Moines for a Jan. 16 tilt against Bradley before quickly turning around and getting back on the road to Valparaiso on Jan. 18.<\/p>\n