BOX SCORE

MOLINE, Ill. – First the men, now the women. Make it a double for Drake basketball.

And a double-double for Maggie Bair.

Bair scored 19 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked a career-high six shots as Drake blew past Belmont 89-71 on Sunday to win the Missouri Valley Conference women’s tournament and earn an NCAA tournament berth for the 14^th time.

The impressive victory over the league’s regular-season co-champion, which had won 16 straight, came one week after Drake beat regular-season champion Bradley to win the men’s tournament. It’s the seventh time a school has won both and the first time both Drake teams made the NCAA tournament in the same year.

Bair, who averaged 19.3 points and 11.7 rebounds in three Hoops in the Heartland games, received tournament’s Patty Viverito Most Oustanding Player Award. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Katie Dinnebier and Grace Berg, who helped the Bulldogs withstand a 34-point outburst by Belmont’s Destinee Wells.

Dinnebier scored 19 points, making 13 of 14 free throws and handing out nine assists. Berg scored 14 on 6-for-9 shooting, while Anna Miller had 15 points and Sara Beth Gueldner 11.

Wells, also on the all-tournament team, started slowly, making just 1-of-3 shots in the first quarter. Then she got rolling and scored at will, going 8-for-10 on 3-pointers and 13-of-24 overall. She finished the tournament with 96 points, which ranks second all-time, behind only the 106 Jackie Stiles scored in 2000.

The championship was the eighth for the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (22-9) and their first since going back-to-back in 2017 and 2018. They started their tournament run with a 73-70 victory over No. 5 Missouri State – their only single-digit win of the season – then overwhelmed top-seeded Illinois State 74-54 before their dominant effort against second-seeded Belmont (23-11).

Drake shot 58.5 percent and ran its offense with its usual efficiency, finishing with assists on 22 of 31 field goals, outscoring the Bruins 42-20 in the paint and making 18-of-19 free throws. The Bulldogs held Belmont to 33 percent shooting in the first half and 40.6 percent for the game and kept the Bruins off the free throw line. The Bruins converted just two of six attempts and were outrebounded 37-28.

Kilyn McGuff added 15 points for Belmont, which had a strong run in its first Valley season after moving over from the Ohio Valley Conference. Tessa Miller scored eight points and Madison Bartley had six points and seven rebounds.

Drake stared the game with two free throws from Dinnebier and a Bair layup to go up 4-0 and led the rest of the way. After Belmont drew to 6-5 on Blair Schoenwald’s 3, the Bulldogs outscored the Bruins 13-7 for a 19-12 lead at the quarter break.

Belmont got as close as 26-23 when Wells buried consecutive 3s, but the Bulldogs responded with a 13-3 run for a 39-26 halftime lead, Becker finishing things off with a layup on a nice feed from Bair.

Becker’s 3-pointer and Dinnebier’s drive to the hoop hiked the lead to 51-38 midway through the third quarter. An 8-0 run drew Belmont to 51-41 and forced a Drake timeout, but the Bruins would get no closer.

The Bulldogs continued to offset Wells’ scoring with sharp passing that produced layups and the occasional 3-pointer and led 65-50 going into the fourth quarter. It was that close only because Wells knocked down a deep 3 at the buzzer, the ball bouncing up off the rim before dropping through the basket.

A 10-4 run stretched the lead to 21 and the Bulldogs enjoyed their biggest lead at 85-59 when Gueldner buried a 3 on yet another assist from Dinnebier, who had made 36 straight free throws before missing one with 7:32 left in the game.

She made the second, swished two more, then capped her day with a bounce pass to Berg for a backdoor layup that made it 89-64 with 1:25 remaining. That was enough time for Wells to drill one more trey before both coaches emptied their benches.

The loss was Belmont’s first since Jan. 15.

Grace Boffeli of Northern Iowa also made the all-tournament team after producing 34 points and 21 rebounds in her two games.

The last school to win both tournaments had been Wichita State, which no longer is a Valley member, in 2014. Drake will go into the NCAA tournament on  a five-game winning streak and with victories in eight of its last nine.