MOLINE, Ill. – Drake is back in the semifinals of the MVC women’s basketball tournament and the Bulldogs got there with their usual combination of crisp passing, accurate shooting and quick scoring bursts.

   Grace Berg scored 18 points, Anna Miller put up her 16^th double-double of the season and the top-seeded Bulldogs cruised to a 79-57 victory over Indiana State on Friday to start the quarterfinal round.

   Miller finished with 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting and pulled down 12 rebounds, while Katie Dinnebier had 15 points and seven assists for the Bulldogs (27-5), who advanced past the quarterfinals for the seventh time in the eight years the tournament has been held in Moline.

   Drake, now one short of the school record for victories, is the defending tournament champion and also won at Vibrant Arena in 2017 and 2018.

   Ninth-seeded Indiana State (11-21) had advanced with a 66-54 victory over No. 8 Southern Illinois but could not keep pace with the sharp-shooting Bulldogs, who had swept the two regular-season games with the Sycamores by a combined 62 points.

   Chelsea Cain led Indiana State with 15 points, Kiley Bess scored 12 and Mya Glanton, who had scored 30 against Southern Illinois, finished with 10.

   Miller didn’t need much time to record her seventh double-double in the last eight games, getting there when she grabbed her 10^th rebound less than 2 minutes into the second half. At one point in the first half, her seven rebounds matched Indiana State’s total as a team.

 The 6-foot-3 junior also had two assists, a steal, a block and went 5-for-6 on free throws. Dinnebier added three rebounds and a steal to her line and went 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

  Drake shot 60 percent in the first half, which ended with the Bulldogs up 42-26, and 50 percent for the game, the 16^th time this season they’ve made at least half their shots. The had assists on 19 of their 27 field goals and came up with 10 steals. .

  The Bulldogs got rolling early, making five of their first six shots and scoring on seven straight possessions in building a 20-10 lead. It was 24-13 at the quarter break and the lead kept growing from there.

   Drake scored the final six points for the second quarter for its 16-point halftime lead, then hit the Sycamores with an 8-0 run early in the third quarter for a 50-28 lead. Berg and Anna Brown buried consecutive treys to start a 9-0 burst at the outset of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 71-41, which would be the Bulldogs’ largest of the game.

  Drake, which went 19-1 in league play, will play in a semifinal game at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs lead all Valley teams with 51 tournament victories and are 15-4 in Moline.