Something New...

Last night, Linda and I cashed in our vouchers for two tickets to the Drake women's basketball game at the Knapp Center in Des Moines. It was my first time in this facility and it's a gem. I doubt there's a bad seat in the house (except maybe behind the band.) The ticket taker pointed out our seats in section J and said "Your seats are up there... behind the band." Well... we'd just hustled in to catch the introductions and tip off. It was apparent that the action was picking up. It might be disrespectful or even hazardous to try to get to our assigned seats. Fortunately, there were some seats right near us where we could stay out of the way and catch our breath for a moment or two.

Suddenly, the stands behind and to our left started rumbling as several dozen kids started pouring down to floorside. They were orderly as they formed a little human wall along the out of bounds line. As each of the Drake women were introduced, they raced along these kids, high-fiving as many as they could. It was a fun way to start the evening! We later learned that these were three busloads of kids from Norwalk, home town of Jill Martin, one of Drake's star players.

The basketball was well played. The crowd was enthusiatic in their support (especially the kids from Norwalk!) The atmosphere was fun; Spike, the Drake mascot, did an excellent job of working the crowd. He even suited up at half time! The band was much more engaged in basketball than they had been in the football games. There was even a very entertaining halftime dance group! Linda and I agreed that the experience of Drake University athletics is certainly worth the price of admission... then we considered that we hadn't actually paid for our tickets... but we decided we would have! We'll be back.

Drake scored early and often including several three pointers. The visiting Panthers were slower to start but were able to take the lead; at one point, Drake trailed by nearly twenty points. About halfway through the second period, the Drake women went on a run and closed that gap. The final minutes were an excellent sequence of offensive and defensive plays by both teams. In the end, it came down to whether the 'dogs would be able to stop the Panther's primary scorer, a big girl who had dominated under the basket at both ends of the court. The ladies were able to move her off her spot and came away with the 75-72 win.