DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University men's basketball team used 36 combined points from freshman Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) and sophomore Jacob Enevold Jensen (Lunderskov, Denmark) to lead wire-to-wire in a 76-66 win over Jackson State Monday evening at the Knapp Center.

Enevold matched a career-high with 17 points and eight rebounds in the win as he was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line. Timmer added 19 points with four assists and made all 11 of his free throws. Chris Caird (Daventry, England) and Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) added 14 and 11 points, respectively, for Drake (2-8).

“We talked about perseverance and we have a young group that takes baby steps and we're going to continue to grow,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “We needed to win tonight to get the losses off our back and continue to be rewarded for our hard work.”

Jackson State (1-9) was held to just 35.9 percent shooting by Drake and was paced by 27 points on 9-of-23 shooting from Raeford Worsham. Derrell Taylor added nine rebounds for the Tigers who held a 39-30 advantage on the glass.

Drake built up a 10-point halftime lead and needed all 10 of those points to hold off a JSU squad that effectively pressed the Bulldogs on-and-off all evening.

Drake extended its lead to 15 points, 44-29, in the first three minutes of the second half and was held nearly scoreless during the next four minutes as JSU assembled a 13-1 run to trim the margin to 45-52 on a Raeford layup.

“The good thing is that you get better when you're in those situations,” Giacoletti said of the Tigers' challenge. “You don't get better when it's easy. “

The Tigers stayed within three possessions for the next seven minutes until a 12-3 run gave Drake a 12-point, 67-55, lead with 5:29 left in the game.

“We've got a group of fighters here,” Enevold said of the Bulldogs' resiliency in rebuilding the lead. Nobody gives up. I love my team for that. We've got to get better, but we're getting there.”

The 12-3 run was keyed by Drake's youth with freshmen and sophomores scoring all 12 points and Timmer scoring nine of them. The Bulldogs later extended the lead to 15, 72-57, with 4:36 left in the contest and kept JSU three scores out of the lead for the remainder of the contest.

Drake built its 10-point halftime lead by leaping out to a quick 15-5 lead five minutes into the game but then went cold from the field for  the next 4:25 as Jackson State assembled a 10-0 run to tie the game at 15-15 with 10:32 left in the first half. Six of those points came from Worsham who finished the half with 10 points.

The Bulldog defense answered the JSU charge by clamping down with nine-straight defensive stops while the offense poured in 14 points during that span to reassert control on the court and take a 29-15 lead with 5:36 left in the contest. The Tigers went to a press shortly after and used a pair of three-pointers from Yettra Specks to claw back within 10 points, 36-26 heading in the locker room.

The Bulldogs return to action this weekend at the annual Big Four Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines. Drake will face No. 13 Iowa State at 4 p.m. in the biennial meeting between the two teams.

“Not very many times in life do you get a free swing,” Giacoletti said of the contest versus Iowa State. “We've got nothing to lose. We're just trying to get better.”