DES MOINES, IOWA -- Denver Holmes' 25-foot basket as time expired lifted Evansville to a 56-53 Missouri Valley Conference victory past Drake Saturday, spoiling the home finale for Josh Young, the Bulldogs' all-time scoring leader who was honored after the game.

It marked the second straight year Evansville made a basket at the buzzer in the Knapp Center to beat the Bulldogs. Kaylon Williams' basket from 35 feet at the buzzer carried Evansville to a 65-52 victory at Drake Jan. 29, 2009.

"It was certainly a tough loss," said Drake head coach Mark Phelps. "Two years in a row Evansville has been able to come in here and make a last second shot to win the game at the buzzer. Not a fun time."

With the loss Drake earned the No. 8 seed in the upcoming State Farm MVC Tournament and will play No. 9 seed Southern Illinois in the opening round at 6:05 p.m. this Thursday in St. Louis.

"Certainly disappointing we couldn't send our seniors out on a better note," Phelps added. "We told our guys before the game, and they knew and they played accordingly, that Evansville is certainly playing better basketball than when we played them the first time. They played a great game and hit a tough buzzer shot to win it."

Young scored 16 points to lead Drake with his last basket tying the game at 53-53 with 8.1 seconds left.

Young took an outlet pass from freshman Seth VanDeest off a rebound and dribbled the length of the court hitting an off-balanced floating jumper from the left side eight feet.

"We certainly wanted the ball in his (Young) hands and he made a big time shot," said Phelps. "Unfortunately we left them with eight seconds and they used all eight to hit a buzzer beater themselves. I thought for sure after Josh hit that shot we could take this thing to overtime or maybe even get another chance with a rebound and a time out to get another shot in regulation."

Following a time out, Holmes took the inbounds pass and dribbled across mid-court before he hit the game winning shot over the outstretched hands of the 6-10 VanDeest.

"We played it perfectly," said Phelps. "We had Seth switched on him, so he had to make a very tough shot over a 6-foot-10 player from three-point range."
 
Young scored in double figures for the 16th straight game and 25th this season. In his final home game, he also finished with four rebounds, two steals and three assists, including the passes that set by back-to-back three-pointers by Adam Templeton and Ryan Wedel that gave Drake a 45-40 lead with 5:44 remaining. Those three-point baskets were part of a 13-2 run Drake used to wipe out a 37-32 deficit.

Young increased his school record totals to 1,766 points and 252 three-pointers. With his four free throws, he passed Red Murrell for second place on the school's career list with 436. Melvin Mathis leads with 439.

"I've been coaching 22 years and it's very, very rare that you run into a young man (Josh Young) that has the total package and has every right to not be humble about that status," Phelps added. "He is a very special young man. We could talk about him for a long time and still not fully explain the essence of what he meant to our school and who he is as a person."

The lead changed hands 11 times.

After a layup by James Haarsma pulled Evansville within 45-42, Templeton drove the baseline for a one-handed dunk giving Drake another five-point lead at 47-42.

"I thought when we went up by five that we were going to be able to close it out," said Phelps. "They hit some big shots and we lost our matchup a couple of times to allow them to get a couple of easy baskets right at the rim."

Evansville, behind three-point baskets from Holmes and freshman Ryan Colt, scored eight straight points to go up 50-47. Drake never led again but tied the score on Young's last basket.

Templeton grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, reaching double figures in that category for the eighth time including second straight game.

Drake made only five of its first 21 shots.

Aaron Hawley's 3-pointer at the 7:26 mark in the first half gave Drake a 15-12 lead and ended a scoring drought of 5 minutes, 10 seconds for the Bulldogs. Before Hawley's basket, Young had scored six straight Drake points -- two free throws, a short bank shot and a follow-up on a fast break.
 
After Hawley's 3-pointer, Drake went another 5:24 without scoring. Hawley ended that drought with a layup.

Freshman guard Ned Cox led Evansville with 18 points.

Evansville went scoreless for 6 minutes, 55 seconds before Cox hit a jumper with 6:39 left in the half, cutting Drake's lead to 15-14. That capped a stretch in which Cox scored 10 straight Evansville points. Cox, averaging 7.2 points for the season, scored only five points in 24 minutes in Drake's 72-65 victory over the Aces in Evansville on Jan. 20.

With two first-half free throws, Evansville's Colt Ryan passed Creighton's P'Allen Stinnett to become the Missouri Valley Conference's top freshman scorer in the last 10 years. The two free throws gave Ryan 419 points. He scored 18 points in the game, running his season total to 431.

Drake's 19 first-half points were a halftime low this season.

VanDeest finished with eight points and four rebounds for Drake which outrebounded Evansville, 27-26.

 'DOG TAGS: Senior forward Bill Eaddy, who has provided a spark off the bench for Drake throughout his career, made his first collegiate start. It was the 86th game of Eaddy's career and he wasted no time getting into the flow. Eaddy made Drake's first basket -- a 3-pointer from the right wing -- just 14 seconds into the game....Drake coach Mark Phelps also started the team's three other seniors -- Young, Templeton and Craig Stanley. It was the 34th start in 54 games for Stanley, the 61st for Templeton and the 104th for Young.