ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The
Drake University men's basketball team opens Missouri Valley Tournament action
Thursday evening against Bradley at 6:05 p.m. at the Scottrade Center in St.
Louis, Mo. The contest will be broadcast on Fox Sports Midwest. Click here for
more information on television broadcast clearances.
Drake enters Thursday's contest as the No. 9 seed with a
14-16 overall record and a 7-11 conference mark. The Bulldogs have won three of
their last four games and aim to rebound from a 66-63 loss to Southern Illinois in its regular
season finale on Saturday.
“I really liked what was happening in our three-game winning
streak,”Drake head coach Mark Phelps said. “The loss to SIU was disappointing,
but I still feel good about our team. We're playing consistently as well as we
have all year.”
Bradley, Drake's opening-round opponent for the third
straight season, is the No. 8 seed in the tournament and heads to St. Louis on
a two game slide, falling at home to Creighton and at Missouri State. The
Braves are 16-15 on the season and 7-11 in conference games.
The teams have met nine times in the MVC Tournament with
Bradley holding a 5-4 advantage, but Drake won the last tournament meeting
between the teams, 65-49, in 2012. Drake has a 16-33 overall record in the
tournament, and a 2-4 record under Coach Mark Phelps.
All-MVC second team member Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) is Drake's ninth all-time leading
scorer and takes his 14.4 points per game average to St. Louis looking to
extend his career in a Drake uniform. The sharpshooter converts 41.1 percent of
his shots from beyond the arc and leads his team with 76 three-pointers. His fellow
seniors, Jordan Clarke (Rockville,
Md.) and Chris Hines (Houston,
Texas) each add 9.6 points per game. Clarke has also been a force on the
boards, hauling in a team-leading 8.6 rebounds per game, the second most in the
MVC with 10 double-doubles.
Walt Lemon, Jr. is the leading scorer for the Braves,
recording a 15.5 scoring average. He is also the team's assists leader, with
108 this season. MVC Defensive MVP Dyricus Simms-Edwards also averages double
figure scoring, with 12.5 points per game.
“The thing that is consistent with Bradley is their great
guard play in Walt Lemon, Jr. and Dyricus Simms-Edwards,” Phelps said. “They're
a really talented as a duo at both ends of the court. I like their pieces and I
think they go as Simms-Edwards and Lemon go.”
Drake and Bradley split the regular season series, with each
squad prevailing at home. The Bulldogs edged Bradley, 92-84, in overtime in the
last meeting between the teams. In that game, Clarke had a career night leading
the Bulldogs with 20 points and 15 rebounds. All five of Drake's starters
scored in double figures, with Simons and VanDeest both scoring 14, Hines
tallied 12, and junior Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) added 10 points.
The Braves were led by Will Egolf's 21 points that evening,
followed by 19 from Lemon Jr., 15 from Simms-Edwards, and 13 from Pickett. A
pair of free throws by VanDeest sent the game to overtime, a period in which
Drake dominated by going 18-of-20 from the free-throw line.
The winner of Thursday's Drake vs. Bradley contest will
advance to face MVC regular-season champion Creighton at 12:05 p.m. on Friday.
