DES MOINES, Iowa -- Drake rode the post presence of Rachael Hackbarth to rally past the Missouri State Lady Bears and take a 36-35 lead into intermission Saturday afternoon at the Knapp Center. The junior center went 6-of-7 from the floor and 5-of-6 at the charity stripe to total 17 first-half points for the Bulldogs.

The Lady Bears built six-point leads on three separate occasions in the opening 20 minutes, only to see Drake close the gap each time. MSU grabbed the upper hand early in the contest, as Christiana Shorter tallied the first three points for the Lady Bears, and Whitney Edie drained a three-pointer four minutes in to hand the visitors a 6-2 advantage.

Drake bounced back behind five early points from MVC scoring leader Kristin Turk to pull to within one with just under 15 minutes to play in the period.

MSU would reel off five unanswered points, taking a 15-9 lead on Karly Buer’s trey from the top of the key. But DU came right back with a 5-0 run of its own to draw to within one, as Hackbarth began a stretch of 10 straight points for the Bulldogs.

The Lady Bears once again pushed their lead to six points with Casey Garrison accounting for five unanswered points. Hackbarth would continue to dominate the procedings, however, totaling 15 points in the final 9:19. DU finally drew even at the 1:42 mark on a Turk bucket, then grabbed their first lead of the day on Angela Christianson’s three-point play with 52 seconds to go.

Garrison would score the last two of her team-high 14 points at the foul line to account for the final halftime margin.

Behind Hackbarth’s performance, the Bulldogs outscored MSU in the paint by an 18-14 margin and shot .414 (12-of-29) from the floor as a team to overcome 11 first-half turnovers. DU was dead on from the foul line, hitting 11-of-12 (917) attempts.

The Lady Bears, who piled up 10 giveaways of their own, hit on 42.3 percent of their field goal attempts.

-MSU-