MOLINE, Ill. – The Drake University women’s basketball team continued their March magic today with a dramatic victory over Missouri State in the MVC Tournament title game. The top-seeded Bulldogs survived a late push from the No. 3 seed Lady Bears to earn the 15th NCAA Tournament berth in program history.

The intensity was evident from the jump as Anna Miller got the scoring started on the first possession of the game after a feed from Grace Berg. Missouri State answered with a deuce from all-league selection Lacy Stokes.

Katie Dinnebier buried the game’s first three-pointer to extend the Bulldogs’ early lead. She added an old fashioned three on the next trip down the floor and scored 10 of Drake’s first 14 points while pacing a 6-0 Bulldog run. The Lady Bears ended their scoreless streak with an Indya Green jumper, but Drake added four more on a pair of Miller buckets to force a Missouri State timeout.

The Drake advantage ballooned after layups from Berg, Courtney Becker, and Shannon Fornshell. The Bulldogs led 24-15 after the first quarter.

Green got going for the Lady Bears in the early portion of the second quarter with two straight scores in the paint to get their deficit back down to five. She hit another from distance to get her into double digits and cut the lead further to just two. The Lady Bears then got a traditional three-point play from MVC Sixth Player of the Year Kennedy Taylor to get within one.

Drake was outscored 20-14 in the second period and was held without a field goal for nearly six minutes to close the half, but still led 38-35 at the break.

The Bulldogs’ shooting woes down the stretch of the second period did not carry over into the second half. Anna Miller spearheaded a 9-0 Drake run to tip off the third quarter as the Dogs’ lead quickly grew back above 10 points. A Katie Dinnebier basket extended the Drake run to 11-0 before Jade Masogayo finally got the Lady Bears back on the board with four straight points.

The Lady Bears then leaned on Taylor to spark another run. Missouri State got back within seven after three successful trips. The Bulldogs added another score from Becker just before the third quarter clock expired and led 59-50 with 10 minutes to play.

Drake started to pull away as the fourth quarter got underway, extending their lead back out to 14 points, but the Lady Bears refused to go away with two prompt steals and scores to get back within eight. A Lacy Stokes reverse layup trimmed the lead further to six as Drake led 70-64 at the fourth quarter media timeout.

Missouri State lengthened their run to 14-0 over nearly four minutes of game time to get within two points as the drama ramped up down the stretch. Stokes capped off that spurt with two free throws to tie the score at 70 apiece.

Anna Miller put down four points to reach 23 for the game as the Bulldogs snagged a narrow four-point lead with just over a minute to play. Missouri State answered with a clutch corner three from Paige Rocca to make it 74-73 in favor of the Bulldogs. Drake looked to make it a three-point game again as Grace Berg banked one in as the shot clock expired, but replay review wiped the two-pointer off the board.

The Lady Bears called timeout to advance the ball into the frontcourt with 12.3 seconds on the ticker. Stokes curled around back-to-back screens and floated in a deuce to give the Lady Bears a 75-74 lead, their first of the game.

2.6 seconds remained for the Bulldogs who took their turn moving the ball across halfcourt with a timeout. Suzie Glazer Burt Head Coach Allison Pohlman drew up a perfectly executed sideline out of bounds set that resulted in another Anna Miller bucket as time expired. Drake escaped with a 76-75 victory.

Miller’s buzzer beating score gave her 25 points to lead all players on Sunday. She also led Drake on the glass with seven rebounds. Katie Dinnebier and Grace Berg also scored in double digits with 17 points and 16 points, respectively. Taylor McAulay led the Drake offense with five assists.

“I love [our team’s] tenacity at any given moment,” Pohlman briefly said postgame. “They have this unwavering belief that not only the others around them are really, really good, but that sets us up for success. We [have some] amazing, amazing basketball players and women.”

Both Anna Miller and Katie Dinnebier earned All-Tournament honors while the latter took home the Patty Viverito Most Outstanding Player Award.

The Bulldogs will start NCAA Tournament play in Manhattan, Kan. on Friday, Mar. 22. Drake earned a No. 12 seed in the Albany 2 Regional and will face off against No. 5 seed Colorado. Tip time is still yet to be determined.