Fast start not enough for Drake women's basketball in first-round NCAA Tournament loss

MANHATTAN, Kan. — All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately for Drake women's basketball, along with an incredible 14-game winning streak, that also meant an end to the Bulldogs' season.

After spotting the No. 12-seeded Bulldogs a nine-point lead to start the game, No. 5 Colorado stormed back and then some Friday night, overpowering Drake, 86-72, in the first round of the NCAA Tourmament at Bramlage Coliseum.

Turnovers and the post presence of Colorado center Aaronette Vonleh proved to be a lethal combination for Drake, which wrapped up its season with a 29-6 record. Colorado (23-9) advanced to a Sunday second-round match with No. 4 seed Kansas State, which beat Portland, 78-65, in the early game.

"Overall, just really, really excited about this team and the byproduct of what they've done all year," Drake coach Allison Pohlman said. "To get to 29 wins for the first time in program history, I think is a really impressive statistic.

"We'd really like to get it to 30, but today clearly a lot of different adjustments that could have been made. The ball could have gone in the hole a little bit more, and the Captain Obvious thing about rebounding did not go in our favor."

Indeed, Colorado outrebounded Drake, 39-18, which resulted in a decisive 16-3 advantage in second-chance points. The Buffaloes also scored 32 points off 19 Drake turnovers.

Vonleh, who finished with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes, was not the only catalyst for the Buffaloes, as point guard Jaylyn Sharrod added 16 points and eight assists. The Buffaloes also got 16 points from Kindyll Wetta.

For Drake, junior guard Katie Dinnebier had a big game to close out her season, leading all scorers with 24 points, while Courtney Becker had 14 and Taylor McAulay 13. But 18 of Dinnebier's points came in the first half, and none in the third quarter when Colorado blew the game open.

"They're just a really good team and they played like a really good team, and then I think our whole offense got a little bit stagnant there in the third quarter," said Dinnebier, who did have five of her team-high seven assists in the second half. "Our shots weren't falling and we just didn't have an answer for that. So I think that's something we’ll definitely learn from.

"We just have to be in the scoring mentality the whole third quarter and the rest of the game, and I think we kind of lost that in the third quarter a little bit."

Colorado led 46-41 at the half, then took control with a 25-12 third quarter.

Drake was on fire early, going up 9-0 on a Grace Berg layup with less than two minutes gone. But Colorado quickly erased the lead behind Vonleh and Sherrod, and was up by as many as 12 points in the second quarter before settling for the five-point halftime edge.

Arne Green is based in Salina, Kan., and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.