WICHITA, KAN. - Going against one of the deepest and arguably talented
teams in the Missouri Valley Conference the Drake men's basketball team more
than held its own before a late surge fueled Wichita State to an 82-63 victory
over the Bulldogs on Tuesday (Jan. 4) at Charles Koch Arena.
The Shockers improved to 12-2 overall, including 3-0 in
league play with the triumph, while dropping Drake's record to 6-8 on the year
and 1-2 in the MVC.
Sparked by nine second-half points, freshman Rayvonte Rice (Champaign,
Ill./Centennial) led four Bulldogs in double figures with a game-high 17
points.
Joining him with double-digit efforts were sophomores Seth VanDeest
(Bettendorf, Iowa/Bettendorf) and Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich./Cadillac) along
with junior Kurt Alexander (Toronto, Ontario/Pine Ridge Secondary) with 12, 11 and 11
points, respectively. VanDeest
also recorded a team-high seven rebounds.
Five Wichita State players cracked the double-figure
plateau, including a trio of reserves.
A 13-point effort from J.T. Durley directed the Shocker attack.
Drake connected on 47.3 percent of its attempts from the
field, while Wichita State was held to a 41.3 percent shooting mark.
The Shockers posted a 43-33 rebounding advantage in the
affair, including 14-7 on the offensive glass. Wichita State drained 10 three pointers in the game, with
seven coming in the final half.
The Bulldogs took the early edge in the contest as baskets
by Rice and Alexander gave Drake a 6-2 lead,
The Bulldogs remained hot from the field although neither
side was able to exert more than a three-point advantage.
Drake maintained the lead in the initial stanza on the
strength of 10 first-half points from VanDeest until the Shockers went ahead
for the first time on a three pointer from Demetric Williams with 2:40 left in
the half.
The basket was part of a 10-3 run to end the half and gave
Wichita State a 35-31 halftime lead.
The Bulldogs connected on 48.1 percent of their shots in the
initial 20 minutes, while limiting the Shockers to a 35.1 percent shooting
mark.
VanDeest led all scorers in the first half with 10, while
four different Shockers registered five points. Rebounding was even at 21, including a 16-11 Drake edge on
the defensive glass.
The two sides exchanged baskets to start the final stanza
with Rice scoring the first nine points for the Bulldogs, including a three
pointer to tie the affair at 40 with 16:33 remaining.
After Rice's jumper, the Shockers scored 10 of the next 11
points to assume a 50-41 advantage with 14:39 remaining.
Back-to-back field goals by VanDeest and Alexander cut the
deficit to 50-45.
Wichita State fired back a 7-0 salvo of its own before a
three pointer by senior Ryan Wedel (Minneapolis, Kan./Minneapolis) and a jumper by sophomore Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark./Rogers)
brought the Bulldogs to within 57-50.
Eight of the Shockers' next 10 points came at the free throw
line, helping WSU take a 66-56 lead en route to securing the victory.
Drake returns to action on Friday (Jan. 7) as the Bulldogs
entertain Bradley in the MVC Game of the Week at 7:05 p.m. Fox Sports Midwest will televise the
contest from the Knapp Center.
