Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa--The Drake Bulldogs withstood a furious late rally from visiting Air Force Saturday night to claim a 62-60 victory in a game in which they led by as many as 13 points early in the second half.
Box Score | Season Statistics
Junior Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) led the way with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field-including 4-of-6 from three-point range-and sophomore Rayvonte Rice (Champaign, Ill.) added 15 points as the Bulldogs improved to 5-3. Air Force dropped to 3-2.
Rice also contributed eight rebounds to tie for the team lead with junior Jordan Clarke (Rockville, Md.), who also provided 10 points and a career-high-tying four steals.
"I've known (Air Force) Coach (Jeff) Reynolds a long time--about 17 years--and he's an excellent coach," said Drake head coach Mark Phelps. "They have a great program at Air Force, they do things the right way. This is probably the best team he's had there. They have older guys (and) we knew it was going to be tough game. I'm just glad we were able to hold on there at the end and get the win."
Drake led 60-52 with 2:10 to play in the game after Clarke made one of two free throws. He had scored 5 of Drake's last seven points and stolen the ball at the defensive end to give the Bulldogs what appeared to be a comfortable lead.
Air Force, however, went on an 8-1 run to cut the lead to 61-60, capped by two Mike Fitzgerald free throws with 42.2 seconds remaining. Freshman point guard Karl Madison (Springfield, Ill.) then went to the line with 15 seconds to play and made the second of two foul shots to give Drake a 62-60 lead.
The Falcons would get two three-point shots off in the final sequence, but knocked down neither, and the Bulldogs escaped with the hard-fought win.
"The free-throw that Karl made to give us a two-point lead was really a big free throw," Phelps said. "There's a big difference between a one-point game and a two-point game. You can play defense a little different. Although they did get a three-point shot off at the horn, luckily it was a 30-footer instead of a 20-footer, and that was a big difference."
The Bulldogs shot 40% from the field (18-45) to Air Force's 39% (16-41), including 30% (6-20) from three-point range to the Falcons' 40% (6-15). Drake was 20-31 from the free-throw line (64.5%), while Air Force was 62.9% (22-35)
"This basketball team continues to be a work in progress," Phelps said. "We're not nearly as good as we can be, individually we can be better, and also collectively we can get better. So it was good to learn some lessons tonight in a game that we won."
The Bulldogs looked to be pulling away midway through the second half, but could not shake the Falcons. Drake used an 8-2 run to take a 51-41 lead with seven minutes to play after Air Force had closed the gap to 43-39. The punctuation point for the Bulldogs was Simons' fourth three-pointer of the night after an excellent hustle play by Madison to come up with a steal.
Drake led 31-21 at intermission, as the Bulldogs put together a 13-2 run late in the first half to push their lead to 31-19, before a Falcons bucket in the waning seconds of the half broke the run.
"It was important to get off to a good start and I thought we did that. We got off to a good start at both ends and really did some nice things in the first half. We built the lead that we needed to withstand their run."
Rice came out hot in the second half, scoring Drake's first five points, but managed just two more points the rest of the way as the Falcons' defense made him a focal point.
Simons, Clarke and Jeremy Jeffers (5 points, 5 rebounds)--who earned his first career start tonight--picked up the scoring slack in a balanced Bulldogs effort that also featured an aggressive effort on the defensive end of the floor. The Bulldogs allowed just 13 points to Falcons star Michael Lyons, who entered the game scoring 20.5 points per game, and had 31 in his most recent outing against Colorado.
"Our game-plan was to defend their cutting," Phelps explained. "They cut as hard as any team in college basketball. They play fast, they run their offense extremely hard, and if you're not ready to defend and be physical and guard on your defensive end for 35 seconds at a time, then you're going to have a long night. I was really happy overall with our effort on the defensive end. We gave them too many threes in the second half, but overall I was happy with our defense."
Drake held a narrow 32-31 advantage on the glass, but was at a 19-15 disadvantage in the second half.
"We need to finish better, handling pressure," Phelps said, "and teams are going to continue to pressure us until we prove that we can handle it, knock down free throws and make the right plays.
We'll continue to work on it and guys are getting better."
The win was a good bounce-back for the Bulldogs coming off Wednesday's disappointing loss at Boise State.
"It was great to be back in the Knapp Center," Phelps said. "It really helped us down the homestretch. Our guys really like to play on this court."
Drake plays at home again on Thursday night against Eastern Michigan. Tipoff is at 8:05 p.m. after the Bulldogs' women's team hosts North Dakota State at 5 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader.
