THE GAME
Drake looks to break into the win column in Missouri Valley Conference play, hosting Wichita State Thursday (Jan. 8). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. KRNT (1350 AM) will carry the broadcast with the pre-game show beginning at 6:35 p.m.

PROBABLE STARTERS
Drake Bulldogs (6-7, 0-2 MVC)
No. - Player - P - Ht. - Cl. - PPG - RPG - APG - FG% - FT%
21 - Jordann Plummer - G - 5-6 - RJr. - 10.2 - 4.1 - 1.8 - .397 - .844
23 - Kristin Turk - G - 5-8 - So. - 11.9 - 2.9 - 1.4 - .358 - .774
24 - Kelsey Keizer - F - 6-2 - Sr. - 2.5 - 5.0 - 0.5 - .350 - .500
32 - Lauren Dybing - F - 6-3 - Sr. - 8.8 - 5.1 - 1.1 - .415 - .700
35 - Kaniesha Agee - G - 5-8 - Jr. - 0.5 - 2.2 - 2.8 - .273 - .000

Top Reserves
4 - Ashleigh Brady - G - 5-10 - Sr. - 4.0 - 1.2 - 0.2 - .457 - .714
14 - Brittnye McSparron - G - 5-5 - Fr. - 5.8 - 1.9 - 1.1 - .443 - .792
15 - Rachael Hackbarth - F - 6-2 - Fr. - 5.7 - 4.0 - 0.6 - .500 - .261
34 - Amber Wollschlager - G - 6-0 - Fr. - 3.2 - 1.2 - 0.5 - .308 - .833
45 - Monique' Jones - F - 5-10 - Jr. - 3.1 - 2.5 - 1.3 - .688 - 1.000

Wichita State Shockers
No. - Player - P - Ht. - Cl. - PPG - RPG - APG - FG% - FT%
1 - Marisah Henderson - G - 5-2 - Jr. - 11.2 - 5.4 - 7.6 - .376 - .712
3 - Jacie Hoyt - G - 5-6 - So. - 8.8 - 2.6 - 4.5 - .339 - .667
20 - Marcy Sudbeck - F - 6-1 - Sr. - 13.8 - 9.5 - 0.6 - .465 - .870
31 - Val Siemens - G - 5-10 - So. - 9.5 - 4.1 - 0.5 - .394 - .833
34 - Daria Frazier - F - 5-10 - Sr. - 11.2 - 6.4 - 0.5 - .504 - .487

DRAKE BASKETBALL
The Drake women's basketball team will play its 1,019th contest Thursday against Wichita State. The Bulldogs have a record of 650-368 (.639), including a 357-103 (.776) home mark, a 225-220 (.506) road record and Drake is 68-45 (.602) at neutral locations. The Bulldogs are 162-47 (.775) in the Knapp Center, including a 60-23 (.723) mark under head coach Amy Stephens.

FOLLOW THE DRAKE-WICHITA STATE GAME
There are two ways to follow the action of the Drake-Wichita State game:

• Log onto www.godrakebulldogs.com and follow the link to livestats.
• Listen to the Drake broadcast on KRNT (1350 AM).

THE COACHES
Jody Adams is in her first season leading Wichita State, compiling a 9-4 (.692) record. Adams is no stranger to the MVC as she spent three seasons (2004-2007) as the associate head coach at Southern Illinois.

Amy Stephens is in her sixth season at Drake and owns a 90-79 (.533) record, with a 287-122 (.702) overall mark in her 14th season as a head coach.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Wichita State is 9-4 (1-1 MVC) following a 64-53 win over Northern Iowa Sunday. The Shockers are led by forward Marcy Sudbeck averaging 13.8 points, 9.5 rebounds per game. Also averaging double-figures is Daria Frazier and Marisah Henderson with 11.2 apiece. Henderson leads the conference and ranks third nationally with 7.6 assists per game.

THE SERIES
This is the 61st meeting between Drake and Wichita State in a series that began during the 1981-82 season. The Bulldogs hold a 43-17 advantage in the series with a 26-3 home record, a 14-13 mark on the road and a 3-1 neutral court advantage. The 43 victories have come by an average of 11.4 points, while the team has fallen by an average margin of 9.5 in its 17 setbacks.

Drake has won the last eight meetings, including a 78-63 conference tournament win March 8, 2007. Wichita State has not won in a game in Des Moines since a 80-78 victory Jan. 6, 2002.

BALANCE
In 12 games this season, six players have led Drake in scoring and rebounding. Leading scorers have been Ashleigh Brady, Kristin Turk (7 games), Jordann Plummer (2), Rachael Hackbarth (2), Amber Wollschlager and Monique Jones. Top rebounders include Lauren Dybing (4), Kelsey Keizer (5), Plummer, Turk, Jones and Hackbarth.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Youth has been a factor this season as freshmen have led Drake in scoring on three occasions. Rachael Hackbarth recorded a team-leading 13 points against Iowa and had eight points against Indiana State. Amber Wollschlager had a break-out game with 18 points at Chicago State. Adding to the youth movement is sophomore Kristin Turk who has led the Bulldogs scoring efforts seven times.

LAST TIME OUT
Illinois State 61, Drake 51 (Jan. 3; Normal, Ill.) ? Illinois State scored seven unanswered points to break a 41-41 tie midway through the second half which proved to be the difference as the Redbirds handed Drake its fourth straight loss with a 61-51 decision.

Freshman guard Katie Broadway, who was averaging 2.8 points, scored five straight points during the surge for Illinois State.

Trailing 34-25, the Bulldogs went on a 13-2 run to grab their first lead of the game at 38-37 following a three-point play by freshman guard Brittnye McSparron (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) with 10:16 left.

Drake held Illinois State 14 points below its Missouri Valley Conference leading 75.2 scoring average.

The Bulldogs forced Illinois State into 16 turnovers, converting those miscues into 19 points.

Jordann Plummer (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter) and Kristin Turk (Des Moines, Iowa/Lincoln), Drake's top two leading scorers, were held to a combined seven points. The duo made a combined three of 11 shots from the floor.

Turk, who played just 17 minutes, scored a season-low two points.

Illinois State opened the game with a 9-0 run before Drake came within four (12-8) at the 13:29 mark.

That was followed by another 9-0 Illinois State run with the Redbirds taking their largest lead of 13 (21-8) with 9:51 remaining in the first.

Drake came within seven at the seven minute mark on a three-point basket by senior forward Kelsey Keizer (Arnolds Park, Iowa/Okoboji) before the Redbirds rallied for a 30-19 halftime lead.

Junior Forward Monique' Jones (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North) led Drake with 12 points, followed by forward Lauren Dybing (Bloomington, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) with nine points and McSparron with eight points.

The Drake bench outscored the Illinois State bench, 32-9, while the Redbirds outrebounded the Bulldogs, 39-31.

Keizer led Drake with seven rebounds.

After shooting 32 percent in the first half (8-of-25), Drake finished the game shooting 40.4 percent (21-of-52).

Illinois State was led by two-time conference MVP Kristi Cirone with 21 points, including 14 in the first half.

LAST TIME THEY MET
Drake 53, Wichita State 51 (March. 8; Wichita, Kan.) ? Senior Jill Martin scored only five points in the second half but she saved them for when Drake needed them most. Her free throw with nine seconds remaining lifted the Bulldogs to 53-51 comeback victory over Wichita State in the 1,000th game in Drake women's basketball history.

Martin provided Drake its first lead of the second half when she connected on a lay-up with 1:38 remaining to give the Bulldogs a 52-51 advantage.

After Martin missed the second of her free throw attempts with nine ticks remaining, the Shockers had an opportunity to tie or win the game. The Bulldogs played stellar defense on the possession and knocked the ball out of bounds with 0.9 seconds remaining. Wichita State inbounded the ball, but Kyrie Kinder's shot at the buzzer bounced out and Drake remained alive for a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title.

Following Illinois State's 87-72 victory over Evansville, the Bulldogs earned a share of their first regular season MVC title since the 2000-01 campaign and sixth in school history.

Martin paced all scorers with 27 points and was joined in double-figures by an 11-point effort from senior Lindsay Whorton. Wichita State garnered 10 points from Kiki Stephens.

Drake finished the game shooting 39.3 percent, while the Shockers connected on 45.1 percent of their attempts.

Led by eight rebounds from Martin and seven from sophomore Kaniesha Agee (Kansas City, Mo./Pembroke Hill), the Bulldogs outrebounded Wichita State, 35-30.

The contest started out as a back and forth affair as Drake didn't assume its first lead until Martin began a 10-0 Bulldog run with a three-pointer at the 6:58 mark of the first half to put Drake ahead 18-15.

Martin accounted for nine points in the 10-0 run and finished the first half with 22 points, while pulling down six rebounds.

Despite Martin's exploits, the Bulldogs led by only three, 27-24, at the intermission, thanks to a 7-2 Wichita State run to close the first 20 minutes.

Drake finished the first half shooting 44 percent, while the Shockers connected on 42.3 percent of their attempts.

A 5-0 push to start the second half gave the advantage back to Wichita State, a lead it held until Martin's lay-up with 1:38 remaining.

SOME MORE STUFF

• In Drake's four-game slide the Bulldogs are shooting .367 (84-of-229) from the field and .213 (13-of-61) from three-point range.
• Drake is 6-2 when leading at half.
• No game has been decided by less than 10 points this season.
• Drake attempted 39 free throws in the season opener against Texas State. The next closest total is 17 against Weber State (Dec. 6).
• Drake attempted a season-low four free throws against Indiana State. The four attempts was the lowest since the March 24, 2008, NIT game at Illinois where the Bulldogs attempted two free throws.
• Drake is 5-3 when shooting .400 or better. The Bulldogs won one game (vs. Coppin State) shooting under .400.
• Drake is 5-1 when scoring 60 plus points and 1-0 when scoring 70 plus points.
• Senior forward Lauren Dybing played in her 100th game against Illinois State. Senior guard Ashleigh Brady will play in her 100th game against Wichita State.
• The Drake bench is outscoring opponents bench, 311-236, averaging 23.9-points per game to opponents 18.2.
• The Drake freshman class has scored the most points this season with 203. The seniors are second with 199, followed by the sophomores with 181 and the juniors with 173. NOTE: the sophomore class consists of one player (Kristin Turk).
• Junior forward Monique' Jones made seven baskets over the last two games, two baskets over her previous season total of five.
• Junior guard Kaniesha Agee has led Drake in assists six times this season, including three games with five assists.

HALF AND HALF
In the Bulldogs' game at Indiana State, the Sycamore's 14 first-half points ranks second all-time in fewest points by an opponent in a half.

In that same game Drake was held to 17 first-half points, ranking fourth all-time in the Bulldog record book. Drake's 14 first-half points at Wisconsin ranks second all-time.

GOOD TO BE HOME
Of Drake's first 13 games, eight of them have been on the road. The last time Drake played eight road games this early in the season was during the 1996-97 campaign. The Bulldogs traveled to Oklahoma, Hawaii (for a tournament), Iowa State, Missouri State, Wichita State, Illinois State and Indiana State.

ON THIS DATE IN BULLDOG HISTORY
The Bulldogs are 3-3 on January 8 contests with a 1-3 home record and a 2-0 road mark. The first Jan. 8 contest was a 57-50 win at Iowa Central Community College. The past four Jan. 8 games have been MVC games in Des Moines, with the Bulldogs compiling a 1-3 record.

WELCOME TO OUR HOME, DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE
The Bulldogs are 162-46 in 15 years of playing in the Drake Knapp Center. Notable wins for Drake in the Knapp Center have come against Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Southern California, Utah and Wisconsin.

The Bulldogs are 4-1 in the Knapp Center this season with wins over Texas State (Nov. 14), Columbia (Nov. 29), Coppin State (Dec. 2) and Western Michigan (Dec. 14). The Bulldogs fell to Iowa, 71-53, Dec. 14.

In 16 home contests last season, Drake averaged 2,728 fans per game. The Bulldogs have averaged 41,943 per season for the last 12 seasons, including a school-record 48,380 fans during the 1998-99 campaign.

MULTIPLE THREAT
Drake senior Lauren Dybing, a 6-3 forward, is expanding her game this season. Dybing, who was 3-of-21 from three-point range all last season, has doubled her three-point production from a year ago, going 6-of-9 this season.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
Sophomore guard Kristin Turk has surpassed her 2006-07 point total only 13 games into the 2008-09 campaign with 155 points this season compared to 130 all of last season.

BULLDOG D
Under head coach Amy Stephens defense has been the signature of the Drake women's basketball team and this season is no different. The Bulldogs are holding opponents to an conference-leading 58.8 points per game. In Drake's six wins the average drops to 53.5 points allowed per game.

NCAA RANKINGS
The NCAA ranks 328 Division I women's basketball programs in various statistical categories. In the January 4 rankings, the Bulldogs are in the top third nationally in scoring defense (91st, 58.8 ppg), free-throw percentage (88th, .707) and turnovers per game (94th, 17.3).

DRAKE'S OFFENSIVE PROGRESS REPORT
In Drake's 13 games this season, this is how the Bulldogs fared from the field: 50 percent: NA; 40 percent: Green Bay (.458), Texas State (.457), Western Michigan (.452), Columbia (.448), Tennessee Tech (.441), Chicago State (.433), Weber State (.423), Illinois State (.404); 30 percent: Iowa State (.392), Coppin State (.361), Wisconsin (.357), Indiana State (.340), 20 percent: Iowa (.299).

BULLDOGS' DEFENSIVE PROGRESS REPORT
This is how the Bulldogs' opponents have fared from the field this season: 50 percent: Chicago State (.521); 40 percent: Green Bay (.488), Iowa (.475), Iowa State (.451), Columbia (.448); 30 percent: Illinois State (.397), Texas State (.323), Weber State (.328), Western Michigan (.358), Wisconsin (.377), Tennessee Tech (.380), Indiana State (.333); 20 percent: Coppin State (.281).

MOVIN' ON UP
With a team-leading nine blocks this season, senior forward Lauren Dybing moved into fourth place on the Drake career blocks list with 93.

BULLDOGS ON THE WEB
Information on the Drake Bulldogs, all other Missouri Valley Conference teams and the league is available to members of the media at all times via the internet.

Drake's Athletic Website may be found at www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com. The site will include current statistics and game notes as well as other pertinent information about Bulldog basketball and other varsity teams.

The MVC website may be found at www.mvc.org. The site will contain conference statistics, standings, TV schedules and press releases, among other important information about MVC basketball.

DRAKE TABBED THIRD
The Bulldogs were tabbed to finish third in the 2008-09 Missouri Valley Conference pre-season poll.

In the Valley's annual poll of coaches, sports information directors and media members, the Bulldogs garnered 297 points. Illinois State topped the rankings, receiving all 40 first-place votes and 400 total points. Creighton landed in second with 310 points.

The defending MVC regular-season champion Bulldogs return eight letter winners, including three regular starters and six players with starting experience, to a team that finished 23-11 last season and advanced to the second round of the NIT.

Rounding out the rankings were Evansville in fourth with 342 points followed by Northern Iowa (245), Missouri State (215 points), Indiana State (166 points), Bradley (161 points), Southern Illinois (108 points) and Wichita State (47 points).

JANUARY SUCCESS
The Bulldogs have enjoyed success in the month of January, compiling a 181-106 record. Drake is 107-35 at home, 70-68 on the road and 4-3 at neutral sites. The Bulldogs have nine January games this season, including five at home where they are 4-1 this season.

FORMER DRAKE STANDOUT NAMED RHODES SCHOLAR
Former Drake University women's basketball standout Lindsay Whorton (Independence, Mo./Truman) was selected as one of 32 Americans chosen as a Rhodes Scholar for 2009. She is Drake's first Rhodes Scholar recipient in 82 years.

Whorton, who will graduate in December with a double major in English and secondary education, maintains a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

She receives a two-year scholarship to study at Oxford University in Oxford, England. She plans to study social policy and evidence-based social intervention at Oxford.

This year's 32 Rhodes Scholars were picked from 769 applicants endorsed by 207 colleges and universities nationwide. About 80 scholars were chosen throughout the world for inclusion in the 2009 class.

Prior Rhodes Scholars include former President Bill Clinton, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former senator and former NBA star Bill Bradley.

The internationally renowned scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer.

Rhodes Scholars are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor.

Whorton is student teaching at Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa this semester. This past summer, she took a youth group from a West Des Moines church to an impoverished county in South Dakota, where they performed service work on an Indian reservation.

A year ago on the basketball court, she helped lead the Bulldogs to a 23-11 mark and their first regular season Missouri Valley Conference title since the 2000-01 campaign, averaging 13.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists en route to earning first team All-MVC accolades. Drake also won its first postseason tournament game since 2001-02 with its 65-56 home victory over Green Bay in the Women's National Invitation Tournament.

She finished her career as Drake's all-time leader in three pointers with 266 and played in 125 career contests, the second-best mark in school history. Her 797 career three-point attempts are an MVC record, while ranking third in career triples in league history. She scored 1,564 career points, the 13th-highest total in Bulldog history.

Off the court, she became just the third women's basketball player in school history to be named a first team Academic All-America selection when she was tabbed to the five-player ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America squad.

Whorton joined Jan Jensen (1990 & 1991) and Tricia Wakely (1996) on this prestigious list. Jan Jensen was named national Academic All-America Player of the Year in 1991, while Wakely shared the same honor in 1996.

Whorton also became the first Bulldog to earn first team Academic All-MVC laurels three times as she garnered top billing in the conference in 2007-08 with her selection as the Prairie Farms MVC Scholar Athlete of the Year.

STEPHENS HONORED BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Drake women's head basketball coach Amy Stevens has been selected as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference All-Time Women's Basketball Coach in conjunction with the league celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009.

Stephens served as head coach at Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference member school Nebraska- Kearney from 1994-2002. The RMAC is the fourth oldest conference in the country, and the most historic in the western U.S.

A four-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, Stephens led Nebraska-Kearney to five RMAC titles while the team averaged nearly 25 victories per season. UNK earned seven straight trips to the NCAA Tournament and also set an NCAA Division II record with an 87-game home-court winning streak that lasted from January of 1995 through November of 2001.

Stephens was the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) District 7 Coach of the Year and a finalist for national coach-of-the-year honors in 2000.

Two student-athletes who played under Stephens, Jessica Kedrowski and Jennifer Warner, were also selected to the RMAC 100th-Anniversary Women's Basketball Team.

"I have really great memories from coaching at Nebraska-Kearney," Stephens said. "It was a special time in my life. We had a lot of success, so I'm very humbled. One of my favorite sayings is great players make great coaches and I was very fortunate to be at Nebraska-Kearney when we had some phenomenal players who put Nebraska-Kearney on the map in terms of Division II women's basketball."

The 12-member RMAC All-Time Women's Basketball Team was selected by representatives from the conference's schools that participate in the sport of women's basketball. Official records for RMAC women's basketball date back to 1978. There are no records of RMAC Player of the Year before 1993 or Coach of the Year before 1992.

DRAKE INKS FOUR PREP STANDOUTS
High school basketball standouts Kate Schechinger, a 6-3 center from Manning, Iowa; Lizzie Naumann, a 6-2 forward from Totino-Grace, Minn; Stephanie Running, a 6-2 forward from Oak Creek, Wis. and Kayla Person, a 5-6 guard from St. Louis, Mo., have signed national letters of intent indicating they will join the Drake women's basketball program.

“We are very excited to sign four outstanding high school athletes as well as individuals who exemplify great character and great academic achievement,” said Drake head coach Amy Stephens.

Schechinger, entering her third year as a starter at IKM-Manning, averaged 22.9 points and 11.4 rebounds for the Wolves in 2007-08. A 1,000-point scorer, she was an Iowa Girls Coaches Association Class 1A first-team all-state selection last year. She also was a first-team all-Western Iowa and All-Boyer Valley Conference selection.

The school-record holder in blocked shots (87), Schechinger is a two-year class president and student-council representative. She also plays volleyball for IKM-Manning, leading the team to the 2008 state tournament.

Naumann is a four-year starter for Totino-Grace, averaging 10.5 points and 9.8 rebounds. She holds school records for single-game rebounds (20) and season rebounds (303, 2007-08). This season Naumann looks to reach both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds as she has 786 career points and 739 career rebounds.

A three-year North Suburban All-Conference selection, Naumann led the Eagles to a 28-3 record and the Minnesota AAA state championship title last season. She also was named a coaches association all-state selection last year.

Running, a three-time first-team all-conference selection, led the Oak Creek Knights to a 21-4 record and a section championship last season, averaging 16.8 points and 7.6 rebounds. She was named to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first-team last season and was a Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) first-team selection in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

A three-year starter, Running is second all-time in scoring (1,011 points), first all-time in blocked shots (66) and holds the single-game record for rebounds (19) and field-goal percentage (.930; 13-of-14).

Person is entering her third year starting for the Incarnate Word Academy Red Knights. She was a 2007-08 Missouri Basketball Association and AP first-team all-state selection, averaging 11.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals. A two-time first-team all-Metro Women's Athletic Association selection, Person led the Red Knights to the championship game of the state tournament.