DES MOINES, Iowa – Chris Hines' 21 points and three other players in double figures led the Drake University men's basketball team to an 83-69 win Wednesday night at the Knapp Center.

Leading by just one point at halftime, 39-38, the Bulldogs came out on fire in the second half, hitting 15-of-23 shots from the floor (65.2 percent), including 7-of-9 from behind the arc (77.8 percent).

Drake (8-9, 2-4 MVC) was strong on the defensive end as well as the team held Evansville (11-6, 4-2 MVC) to just 7-of-24 from the field (24.1 percent) and 1-of-13 from behind the three-point line in the second half.

“I feel like the second-half offense was a result of the defense,”  Drake head coach Mark Phelps said. “Overall our defense was much better in the second half and that allowed us to run in transition and gain more energy on the offensive end.”

After Colt Ryan knocked down two free throws to give Evansville a 57-56 lead with 11:52 left in the game. Drake answered with a 15-4 run, the last on a jumper by Joey King (Eagan, Minn.), to give the Bulldogs a 71-59 lead that forced Evansville to take a timeout with 4:53 left in the game to try and stop the bleeding.

However, Evansville had no answer for Drake out of the timeout as the Bulldogs would go up by as many as 16 points on the way to their first conference win at home and fourth straight win over Evansville.

“We came out with a lot of energy and had a little lull there in the beginning, but really picked it up and got going,” senior Ben Simons said. “We got going more in transition and Evansville's half-court defense is really good. We knew we needed to get more easy baskets and we executed the game plan on defense.”

Ryan scored a game-high 25 points, pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and finished 16-of-16 from the free-throw line for Evansville.

Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) scored 18 points and Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) had 13 points off the bench for the Bulldogs to go along with six assists. Seth VanDeest (Bettendorf, Iowa) had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Hines, a Houston, Texas native, that has scored 44 points in the last two games, added four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block and was 5-of-6 from behind the arc.

“He's playing really hard and playing the right way,” Phelps said of Hines. “He's not thinking about shooting, he's thinking about guarding and when that happens you can play on offense with a free mind.”

In the first half, D.J Balentine came off the bench and scored 10 straight points to help the Aces build a 19-9 lead at the under 12 official timeout, its largest lead of the game. However, Drake slowly chipped away at Evansville's lead and tied the game at 28-28 with less than four minutes left in the opening half. There were scoring runs by both teams in those final minutes of the half with Drake using an 8-0 run to take a 39-32 lead before Evansville's 6-0 run cut Drake's lead to just one point at halftime, 39-38.

Balentine cooled off after his flurry of points as the Bulldogs held him scoreless the rest of half and allowed just three second-half points.

Drake travels to Northern Iowa Sunday, Jan. 20 for its next contest. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. in the McLeod Center with the contest being aired on ESPN3.