DES MOINES, Iowa – Drake women’s basketball capped the inaugural Vibrant Thanksgiving Classic with a wire-to-wire victory, getting production throughout the lineup in beating Maine 72-56 at the Knapp Center on Sunday afternoon.

Courtney Becker drove for a layup off the opening tip, Taylor McAulay followed with a three-point play for a 5-0 lead and the Bulldogs (5-2) stayed on front the rest of the way to finish 2-1 in the holiday weekend event.

Anna Miller topped off a solid homestand with 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting to lead the Bulldogs, who shot 54.7 percent and enjoyed a 44-26 margin in points in the paint by taking the ball aggressively to the basket. Miller averaged 15 points and 7.3 rebounds and shot 60.6 percent in the round-robin tournament, scoring in double figures every game — the third time in her career she has done that for at least three straight games.

Grace Berg added 15 points and moved up three more spots on Drake’s career scoring list to No. 22, running her total to 1,362. Katie Dinnebier posted another strong line with 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. She and Miller were named to the all-tournament team.

McAulay finished with eight points and freshman Shannon Fornshell scored six on a couple of three-pointers. Berg led the Bulldogs with eight rebounds and five assists while going 6-for-11 from the field.

The Bulldogs went 2-1 in the tournament, beating Louisiana Tech on Friday and losing to Richmond on Saturday. Richmond went 3-0, Maine 1-2 and Louisiana Tech 0-3.

This was just the fourth meeting between the two programs and the first since Drake beat Maine 94-62 on Nov. 30, 2019 at the Gulf Coast Classic in Estero, Florida.

“It was fun to watch us start like that in the first quarter,” Suzie Glazer Burt head coach Allison Pohlman said. “Everyone was just ready to go. We were a proud group to realize we had won the second quarter especially considering that we’d given up a lot of offensive rebounds. We were able to manage the game well…Katie [Dinnebier] did a nice job, Ava [Hawthorne] had a solid game today. Taylor [McAulay] and Courtney [Becker] combined to go 5-for-7 from the field and played well defensively…just another example of our group being ready to go today.”

The Bulldogs will have a chance to catch their breath this week before heading north to play at Minnesota on Saturday, Dec. 2. The game tips at 1 p.m. Drake then has consecutive home games with North Dakota State on Dec. 8 and Creighton on Dec. 17.