KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Drake University men's basketball team got off to a torrid start on Saturday afternoon before faltering in the second half of a 91-75 loss at Western Michigan.

Freshman Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) led Drake with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting with Chris Caird (Daventry, England) adding 13 points on a trio of three-pointers. Ore Arogundade (Chicago, Ill.) added 11 points by hitting all three of his three-point attempts.

Drake (0-3) opened the game by making its first nine three-point attempts and shooting 70.8 percent from the field to take a 46-41 lead into halftime. Despite the first-half offensive explosion, Western Michigan (3-0) kept pace with the Bulldogs by shooting 61.5 percent from the field with Tucker Haymond scoring 12 of his game-high 24 points in the first half.

“Offensively I thought we did a pretty good job and our freshman did a great job in the first half,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “We're playing them too many minutes to be able to sustain that on both ends of the floor. But we will get this defensive issue taken care of.”

However, the hot shooting tailed off in the second half as turnovers handcuffed the offense while the defense surrendered points. The Bulldogs committed seven turnovers in the first seven minutes of the half to allow the Broncos to assemble a 16-0 run and take a 57-48 lead with 13 minutes left in the contest. Austin Richie and Connar Tava gave the Bulldogs fits during that span by scoring 14 of the 16 points. Tava finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

“They're a tough a team to guard,” Giacoletti said. “They isolate you and are difficult to guard for long periods of time. They're a veteran team, but we need to be better defensively.”

Drake finished the game with 20 turnovers after only committing six in the opening half. WMU converted those errors into 24 points to pull ahead despite Drake making 56.8 percent of its shots and 61.1 percent from the three-point arc.

Drake briefly pulled within eight points, 63-54, with 9:56 left on Caird's final three-pointer of the day but could get no closer as the defense was unable to consistently generate stops.

“We will be fundamentally sound on the defensive end of the floor,” Giacoletti added postgame. “We take great pride in that and we're having a problem because we're playing guys so many minutes that they lose focus. That's something we will rectify.”

Drake will have two days to correct that focus before it hosts IUPUI on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. in the Knapp Center. The game will see the return of seniors Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Karl Madison (Springfield, Ill.) to the lineup following a three-game suspension.

Tickets for Tuesday's game are available at GoDrakeBulldogs.com or via the Drake athletic ticket office at 515-271-DOGS. The athletic ticket office is also offering a special 'Two-for-Tuesday' promotion with two general admission tickets, two hot dogs and two drinks for $22. Use special offer code TUESDAY to purchase online.