Anna Miller

DES MOINES — The Drake ladies simply have the Panthers’ number.

The Drake women’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing skid by beating Northern Iowa for the 12th time in their last 13 meetings, holding off the Panthers for a 65-57 victory in Friday’s Missouri Valley Conference game inside the Knapp Center.

Freshman Anna Miller gave the Bulldogs a much needed boost off the bench, tallying team-highs of 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots to help Drake (10-8, 2-5) win for the first time since New Year’s Day.

Grace Berg added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists, Megan Meyer finished with 11 points, and Maggie Bair came away with 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists as the Bulldogs beat UNI inside the Knapp Center a sixth-straight time.

Drake led by as many as nine points in the first half but had to hold off Northern Iowa throughout the second half. The Panthers got back to even three times in the fourth quarter, the last on a jumper by Karli Rucker with 2 minutes, 26 seconds left in the game to knot it at 57-all.

Drake scored the last eight points of the game, however, as UNI came up empty on its final four shot attempts.

Rucker had 12 points and four assists to pace Northern Iowa (10-6, 3-2), which had won three in a row. Nicole Kroeger added 11 points while Bre Gunnels had eight points, eight boards and five blocked shots for the Panthers, who shot just 25-for-70 (35.7 percent) from the field and a paltry 5-for-26 (19.2 percent) from 3-point distance.

Drake didn’t shoot much better, going 25-for-65 (38.5 percent) from the floor and 4-for-20 (20 percent) from 3-point land, but the Bulldogs were 11-of-16 at the free-throw line while UNI was just 2-of-6.

Drake 65, UNI 57

N. IOWA (10-6, 3-2) — Rucker 6-17 0-0 12, Kroeger 4-6 0-0 11, Gunnels 4-12 0-0 8, Finley 3-12 0-0 6, Boffeli 1-2 0-0 2, Wolf 3-7 2-4 9, Green 3-7 0-2 6, Laube 1-3 0-0 3, McDermott 0-2 0-0 0, McCullough 0-0 0-0 0, Morgan 0-1 0-0 0, Barney 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 25-70 2-6 57.

DRAKE (10-8, 2-5) — Berg 5-9 3-4 13, Meyer 5-12 0-0 11, Bair 4-11 2-2 10, Dinnebier 0-5 5-8 5, Wooldridge 0-1 0-0 0, Miller 7-14 1-2 16, Gueldner 2-6 0-0 6, Becker 1-6 0-0 2, Fuller 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS 25-65 11-16 65.

N. IOWA 15 15 17 10 — 57

DRAKE 22 12 15 16 — 65

3-Point Goals–UNI 5-26 (Kroeger 3-4, Laube 1-3, Wolf 1-4, McDermott 0-1, Morgan 0-1, Gunnels 0-3, Rucker 0-4, Finley 0-6), Drake 4-20 (Gueldner 2-4, Meyer 1-3, Miller 1-3, Berg 0-1, Becker 0-4, Dinnebier 0-5). Rebounds–UNI 39 (Boffeli 10), Drake 49 (Miller 8). Assists–UNI 12 (Rucker, Finley 4), Derake 18 (Berg 5). Total Fouls–UNI 14, Drake 9. Fouled Out–Boffeli. A–2,300.