Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012

DES MOINES, Iowa--Junior Jordan Clarke scored a career-high 18 points and tied his career high with 12 rebounds to lead Drake to a 78-54 victory over Evansville Sunday night at the Knapp Center. It was his third career double-double, and came on a night when the Bulldogs made a season-high 11 three-pointers to halt a three-game losing streak.

Box Score | Updated Season Statistics

With the win Drake moves to 14-12 on the season and 7-8 in MVC play, tied for fifth place with Northern Iowa and Evansville. The Purple Aces fall to 12-13, 7-8 in conference play.

The Bulldogs, who never trailed in the game, had five players reach double-figures in scoring. Redshirt-freshman Jeremy Jeffers (Wilson, N.C.) made a career-best four three-pointers to account for 12 points, while senior Kurt Alexander (Toronto, Ontario) had 16 and junior Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) added 10. Sophomore Rayvonte Rice (Champaign, Ill.) hit three-pointers to begin both halves on his way to 13 points. Rice, who ranks third in scoring in the MVC (16.4), also had a career-best 3 blocked shots.

Drake held the MVC's second-leading scorer, Colt Ryan, in check throughout the game. Ryan, who ranks 13th nationally averaging 20.5 points per contest, could only muster seven points, on 2-of-8 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs, who held Ryan to six points in the teams' first matchup, at Evansville, on Jan. 13, have forced Ryan into his two lowest scoring outputs of the season.

The Purple Aces were led in scoring by Denver Holmes with 16 points.

"The key to the game was how we defended," said head coach Mark Phelps. "We did a really good job on the defensive end. We have talked over and over about defense fueling our offense, and that's when we give ourselves the best chance to win. I thought we were terrific. Although Colt Ryan was guarded mostly by Jeremy Jeffers, I thought everybody did a terrific job."

Evansville shot 36.8% (21-57) for the game, the second-lowest by a Drake opponent in conference play this season. That percentage marks the 11th straight game the Bulldogs have held an opponent to 50% or less from the field.

"It was a team defensive effort," Phelps added. "We were all on the same page and we played unselfishly on defense, and that was really the key to the game."

The Bulldogs shot well from the opening tip, building a 17-4 lead by the 11:30 mark of the first half. Their first six baskets from the field were three-pointers until an Alexander lay-in recorded their first two-point field goal of the night. Drake led the entire half, shooting 46 percent (12-of-26) to build a 33-26 halftime lead.

Evansville slowed Drake down in the early portion of the second-half. A flurry of baskets helped the Aces to an 11-2 run to put them down one, 40-39 with 14:41 left to play. A failed alley-oop killed the Aces' momentum and the Bulldogs went on a 24-4 run over the next six minutes to stretch the lead to 64-43 with eight minutes to play.

"There's a game-plan for guarding 'motion,' Phelps said. "They're a terrific motion offensive team. They've played really well of late on the offensive end. Our guys followed the game plan to perfection and they were where they were supposed to be at all times. In addition I thought they played with a lot of energy and a lot of effort. It looked guys had fun playing defense out there tonight."

The run never died as the Drake outscored Evansville 38-15 in the final 14 minutes of play. The Bulldogs shot 60 percent from the field in the second half (18-of-30), and 53 percent (30-of-56) on the game, their best shooting night since making 61 percent (27-of-44) vs. Illinois State on Jan. 15. The season-high 11 three-pointers came on 22 attempts.

Drake, which ranks third in the MVC in three-point field-goal percentage defense (.337), held Evansville to a 27.3-percent clip for the night (3-for-11).

Clarke re-emerged in a big way for Drake with the double-double, his first double-figure effort in either points or rebounds since snaring 11 boards vs. Northern Iowa on Jan. 7, 2012. The first two double-doubles of his career came in back-to-back December games this season at Iowa and vs. Central Arkansas.

"Teammates did a great job of finding me," Clarke explained. "We just worked hard, we shared the ball, we had a game-plan to go inside-out and we did that. We went inside early and they were coming with the double so we kicked it out and got it to our shooters. Things started to loosen up and guys started to get into the paint. They started dropping it off to me and I got a couple offensive rebounds. It was just a real team effort."

The Bulldogs will take to the road again on Wednesday to play at Bradley in a game to be televised by FOX Sports Midwest. Tipoff is set for 7:05 (CT).

NOTES:

• Junior Aaron Hawley added two three-pointers (7 att.) tonight after making a career-high four in back-to-back games coming in, giving him 10 triples since starting in place of the ill Ben Simons.
• Redshirt-freshman Jeremy Jeffers is shooting 20-35 from the field (57.1%) in the last six games. He made a career-high four three-pointers in six attempts, topping his previous high of three vs. Central Arkansas (12/21/11).
• Sophomore Rayvonte Rice had a solid all-around night with 13 points, shooting 5-of-9 from the field, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, and adding three rebounds, three assists, a season-high three blocks and two steals.
• Junior Jordan Clarke's career-high 18 points exceeded his previous high of 16 against Central Arkansas (12/21/11), and his 12 boards matched his previous career best of 12 vs. Indiana State (12/28/11). He also tied career highs for field goals (7) and field-goal attempts (11) set vs. Central Arkansas.
• Senior Kurt Alexander grabbed a career-high six rebounds, topping his previous high of 5 vs. Wichita State in three overtimes in Jan. 28, 2012. He scored in double figures (16) for the ninth time this season and matched his career high for field-goal attempts (11; vs. Bradley, 1/10/12).
• Drake had five players score in double figures for the first time since the season-opener vs. Upper Iowa (11/12/11).
• The Bulldogs, who shot 53.6 percent from the field (30-of-56) are 8-0 this season when shooting higher than 50 percent.
• The 24-point margin of victory was Drake's largest in a Missouri Valley Conference game since defeating Illinois State 79-49 in the 2008 MVC Tournament Championship game.
• Drake started Karl Madison (G), Rayvonte Rice (G), Jordan Clarke (F), Aaron Hawley (F) and Jeremy Jeffers (F). Evansville started Troy Taylor (G), Colt Ryan (G), Ryan Sawvell (F), Kenny Harris (F) and Denver Holmes (F).
• The Bulldogs' 14 wins exceed last year's 13, and match their 2009-10 total (14-19) with at least five games remaining. Drake's seventh conference win matches the number from each of head coach Mark Phelps' first three seasons (7-11) with three conference games remaining.