FEB. 7, 2009DES MOINES, IOWA -- Drake shot a sizzling 58.8 percent from the floor in the second half en route to posting a 68-54 Missouri Valley Conference victory past Bradley Saturday night, while snapping a three-game losing streak.
Guards
Josh Young (Lawton, Okla.) and
Josh Parker (Harvey, Ill.) led the Bulldogs, who also halted a three-game home losing skid, with 18 and 16 points, respectively.
With the score tied at 17-17, Bradley went the last 6 minutes 58 seconds without a basket to end the first half. The Braves missed five shots, while committing six turnovers during the stretch.
Drake took advantage going on a 13-3 run fueled by six points from Young and five by Parker.
Layups by
Craig Stanley (Plano, Texas) and
Jonathan Cox (Barrington, Ill.) pushed Drake's lead to 34-22 with 16:34 remaining in the game.
Bradley was able to cut the deficit to eight points on three occasions in the second half.
But the Braves made only one basket during a 5:32 span midway through the second half (13:27 to 7:55) allowing Drake to build a pair of 16-point leads.
A layup by Parker gave Drake a 53-37 cushion with 8:05 remaining.
Cox, the leading rebounder in the MVC, enjoyed his seventh double-figure rebounding game of the season, pulling down a game-high 10 boards.
Cox added six points, while tying a career high with three assists. He also blocked two shots and had a steal.
Cox moved into No. 15 on the school career scoring list with 1,090 points, passing Greg Danielson (1999-2003) who had 1,085.
Drake outrebounded Bradley, 29-25, while improving its record to 11-0 this season when outrebounding opponents.
The Bulldogs scored 24 points off 19 Bradley turnovers.
The 54 points were a season low by Bradley which also had season lows in field goals made (18) while tying a season low with 25 rebounds.
Drake improved its record to 15-10, including a 6-7 league mark.
Bradley, which suffered its third straight loss, fell to 13-11 with a 7-6 MVC ledger.
