EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The Drake Bulldogs continued their march back towards .500 Thursday night on the road against Evansville in MVC women’s basketball action. The Bulldogs (4-6, 2-1 MVC) outscored Evansville (4-4, 0-3) 25-8 in the third quarter to help them pick up a 74-50 victory.

The Bulldogs led the game early 16-4 and took a 25-15 lead into the second quarter. The Bulldogs scored just nine points in the second quarter before the game was blown open in the second half.

Despite 21 turnovers, the Bulldogs were able to compensate with an even scoring night led by Maddie Monahan (game-high 13 points). Grace Berg added 12 points and Kierra Collier scored 10, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists. Maggie Bair scored nine points, had a team-high 10 rebounds and four blocks. The Bulldogs had 53 team rebounds and 22 points the paint.

The Aces turned the ball over 20 times, nearly matching Drake’s total and gifting the Bulldogs 22 points off turnovers. Collier led the team with three steals.

The two teams play against Friday night at 6 p.m.

Panthers lose on the road

VALPARAISO, Ind. — The UNI women’s basketball team was undone Thursday night by a 14-2 third-quarter run from the host Valparaiso Crusaders, dropping the Panthers to 5-5 and 2-1 in Valley play with the 63-56 loss.

After trailing by one at the halftime break, UNI had a 14-2 run coming out of the break to take a 44-33 lead and control the contest — but the lead didn’t last long. The third quarter ended with Valpo getting a 14-2 run of its own to take the lead back heading into the final 10 minutes.

The Crusaders expanded their lead and kept the Panthers at an arm’s length the rest of the night to seal victory, despite UNI’s complete control of the rebounding battle (48-34).

In the loss, Karli Rucker scored a team-high 18 points to pace UNI. She was the only UNI player in double-figures, as the next best scorer was Cynthia Wolf with nine points off the bench.

Wolf led the team with eight rebounds. The Panthers only recorded 12 assists and turned the ball over 19 times, while shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range.

UNI plays Valpo Friday at 6 p.m. with streaming coverage on ESPN3.