Box Score ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Drake University men's basketball team dropped the opening game of the Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament to Evansville, 69-61, Thursday night at the Scottrade Center.
A four-minute scoring drought midway through the first half was all the Purple Aces needed to erase an early deficit and take the lead for good to advance to face top-seeded Wichita State in the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament. Drake put together multiple runs in the second half, but ultimately could not get any closer than six points. The Bulldogs conclude the season at 15-16 overall and 6-12 in conference games, while Evansville moves to 14-18 and 6-12.
Drake senior Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) scored a team-high 26 points, moving his season total to 514 points, the 17th most in school history, while adding seven assists in his 10th 20-point game of the season. Junior Jordan Daniels (Fontana, Calif.) was the only other Bulldog to record double-figure scoring with 11 points, while senior Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) added nine. Senior Seth VanDeest (Bettendorf, Iowa) was the top rebounder for Drake with eight boards before fouling out.
D. J. Balentine, the conference's leading scorer, posted 30 points to lead Evansville and Egidijus Mockevicius had a career high 19 points and eight blocks, the second most in a MVC Tournament game, as well as 10 rebounds.
“Take your hat off to Balentine tonight, we tried everybody against him tonight,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “We tried playing zone, switching defenses and he's a guy that's become extremely versatile in not just scoring but passing the ball.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead, but encountered shooting struggles in the middle of the first half as Evansville took the lead with an 11-0 scoring run. Drake called a quick timeout with just under five minutes left in the first half, trailing 30-21 due to that run that saw the Bulldogs go 0-of-4 from the field with three turnovers.
“They hit back-to-back three-pointers when we didn't get matched up in a transition and it happened so quick that we went from even to down six,” Giacoletti said of the start of that run. “They're a difficult team to prepare for because most teams run ball screen offense and theirs is motion offense.”
Daniels ended the four-minute scoring drought with a layup with 4:00 on the clock and junior Chris Caird (Daventry, England) sank a three from the baseline on the following possession to give Drake five quick points and pull within seven points, 33-26.
Drake could not pull any closer in the first half and trailed the Purple Aces, 39-28, at halftime. Although Carter paced the Bulldogs with nine points in the first half, all of his first-half points in the first four minutes of the contest. The Bulldogs shot 45.8-percent from the field but closed the half cold, making just three of their final 13 shots. Meanwhile, Evansville shot a 56-percent clip in the opening half, led by Balentine's 16 points and four assists.
Using momentum from Carter's shot from the perimeter to give him 500 points this season, Drake embarked on an 8-0 scoring run in the opening minutes of the second half to trim the deficit to six, 42-36, as Evansville called a timeout with 16:26 on the clock in what proved to be a successful effort to cool the Bulldogs down.
After Evansville extended its lead to 15 points with 10:45 left in the second half, the Bulldogs responded with a 9-0 spurt in less than two minutes to claw back in the game, trailing by six points, 58-52, with 8:50 left on the clock. Daniels was the key scorer during the run, scoring seven of Drake's nine points including a four-point play.
However, three minutes later the Aces extended their lead back to double-digits and led by as many as 13 points with three minutes to play to build what proved to be an insurmountable lead.
With the loss, Drake concludes the 2013-14 season with a 15-16 record under first-year head coach Ray Giacoletti. Drake is projected to return two starters, as well as injured senior Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) from this year's roster.
“I'm proud of our three seniors and what they've been able to accomplish and buying in on a brand new staff,” Giacoletti said. “I couldn't be more proud of each of them in different ways. This team has grown as we've gone through the year, they've never splintered, cracked or quit and I appreciate the foundation they've laid in our first year here at Drake.”
