Friday, Jan. 13, 2012
EVANSVILLE, Ind.--The Drake Bulldogs captured their first road win of the season on Friday, defeating Evansville 69-60 at the Ford Center in a Missouri Valley Conference matchup.
Drake, which had one win away from the Knapp Center on a neutral court over Winthrop at the Paradise Jam on Nov. 19, won its second game in a row and held the Purple Aces to their lowest point total of the season.
The Bulldogs evened their Missouri Valley Conference record at 3-3. Evansville is now 7-9, 2-4 in the MVC.
Box Score | Updated Season Statistics
Junior Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) led all scorers with 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including 3-5 from three-point range. Junior Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) added 11 points and four players shared the rebounding lead with six apiece to help the Bulldogs to a season-best 38-21 rebounding advantage.
"It was a great road win for us," said head coach Mark Phelps. "We have a lot we can work on. We turned the ball over entirely too much and we didn't make free throws, but when we did get shots, we got pretty good ones. I'm really proud of our guys for getting even in the Valley (3-3)."
The Bulldogs shot a season-high 61.4 percent from the field, including 72.7 percent in the first half to take a 39-32 lead to the locker room. Drake opened the game making 13 of its first 16 shots from the field to build a 13-4 lead. The margin was stretched to 26-9 at the 10:43 mark of the first half after Hawley scored seven of nine Drake points in a two-minute span.
The Aces narrowed the gap to 5 points early in the second, and trailed just 44-38 before the Bulldogs went on a 12-4 run that started with back-to-back three-pointers by Simons and redshirt-freshman Jeremy Jeffers (Wilson, N.C.). That built a 56-42 lead and Drake maintained control from that point.
Evansville shot just 42.6 percent for the game and was 2-for-12 from three-point range (16.7%), while Drake shot 58.3 percent (7-for-12) from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs limited the Missouri Valley Conference's second-leading scorer, Colt Ryan, to 6 points. Ryan came into the game with an average of 21.0 points per game, and was held to his lowest point total since Jan. 26, 2011, when he scored two points at Indiana State.
"It was a great road win for us," Phelps said. "We have a lot we can work on. We turned the ball over entirely too much and we didn't make free throws, but when we did get shots, we got pretty good ones. I'm really proud of our guys for getting even in the Valley (3-3)."
The Bulldogs committed 22 turnovers, their second-highest total of the season, against the Valley's No. 1 turnover-generating defense (18.1) and made just 8-of-19 free throws, for a season-low 42.1 percent. Evansville, the MVC's No. 1 free-throw shooting team entering the game (75.5%) also struggled, making 12-of-19 (63.2%). The Purple Aces scored just 60 points, nearly 13 points below their season average of 72.7, third-best in the Valley.
Drake, however, enjoyed its second-best three-point shooting accuracy of the season, connecting on 7-of-12 attempts from behind the arc. The four-way tie for top rebounder included Jeffers, Jordan Clarke (Rockville, Md.), Kraidon Woods (Henryville, Pa.) and Rayvonte Rice (Champaign, Ill.). Clarke added 8 points, Rice and Woods each scored 9 and Jeffers 6 to complement a well-balanced Drake offensive attack.
The Bulldogs return to Des Moines to host Illinois State (11-6, 3-3) at the Knapp Center on Sunday night, Jan. 15, at 7:05 p.m.
