NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Senior Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) scored 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting, but the Drake University men's basketball team's second-half rally against Portland came up short by a score of 71-59 at the Challenge in Music City.

Ricks hit a career-high five three-pointers while Jordan Daniels (Fontana, Calif.) added 12 points to help Drake (1-5) outscore Portland (5-0) in the second half, 37-33. The Bulldogs shot 58.3 percent from the field in the half and 7-of-10 from the three-point arc during the second half, but that was not enough to overcome a 16-point halftime deficit.

The Bulldogs opened the second half on an 10-2 run in the first four minutes of the period with eight of those points coming from Ricks' hot hand as the defense generated stops.

“We did a nice job in the second half of coming out with a mindset that you need to start the game with,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “I don't know why we aren't able to do those things early, but that's the next step this team needs to make. We have to find a way to start games that way.”

Once the Bulldogs pulled within eight points, Portland stretched its lead back out to 14 as center Thomas Van Der Mars continued to control the paint with 14 points and six rebounds on a night that saw Portland hold a 31-20 advantage in rebounding.

Drake stayed within striking distance for the remainder of the second half with eight points from Ricks and Chris Caird (Daventry, England) pulling Drake within 10 points, 66-56, with 1:22 left in the contest before a D'Marques Tyson three-pointer put the dagger in the Bulldogs' comeback hopes.

“I thought we played well but dug ourselves a hole in the first half,” Ricks said. “I was proud of how resilient we were and how we battled back and won the second half.”

The teams traded baskets to open the game before five-point and seven-point Portland runs allowed the Pilots to build a double-digit lead with nine minutes left in the contest. Extended possessions led to much of that lead creation up as Portland corralled nine offensive rebounds in the first half to score 17 second chance points.

Back-to-back buckets from Daniels with just over eight minutes left in the first half pulled Drake back within three possessions, 24-15, but Portland outscored Drake 14-7 over the remaining minutes to take a 16-point, 38-22, lead into halftime.

Drake will play its third and final game of the Challenge In Music City on Sunday, Nov. 30 at 3:30 p.m. against a Murray State program that has posted 27 consecutive winning seasons and made two NCAA appearances in the last four years.

“They've very athletic,” Giacoletti said of Sunday's opponent. “We'll get ourselves ready to go and hope to leave here on a positive note.”