CHICAGO, Ill. – The Drake University men's basketball team's quest for a Missouri Valley Conference road win came down to the final seconds Wednesday evening in a 50-47 loss at Loyola. However, the Bulldogs' game-tying attempt with two seconds on the clock glanced off the rim.

Drake's Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) led scorers with a season-high 24 points on a career-best seven three-pointers. Jacob Enevold Jensen (Lunderskov, Denmark) added six points and eight rebounds to help Drake (3-14, 0-5 MVC) record a 28-24 advantage on the glass. The back-and-forth contest featured 17 lead changes and neither team led by more than six points.

“I'm proud of the guys,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “We talked about change and how we're the only ones that can make change. It starts with the effort and not breaking when you go through adversity.”

Christian Thomas recorded 16 points for Loyola (13-4, 3-2 MVC) on 7-of-11 shooting. The forward scored four of the Ramblers' final six points of the evening to give them a three-point cushion with 1:32 left in the contest.

Following a Drake miss with one minute left, Enevold made a critical defensive play by blocking Milton Doyle's shot in the lane to keep the deficit at three points. Following a pair of timeouts, the Bulldogs' got the ball into the hot hands of Ricks on the left wing for a game-tying attempt. While on line, the shot was long to preserve the Ramblers' win.

“It felt good and looked good,” Ricks said. “My teammates picked me up and had my back as they have through my little slump.”

Ricks came into the game off the bench in the first half and immediately changed the complexion of the game. The senior made six three-pointers in the first half to finish with 20 points in the period.

“We were trying to attack the basket and get open looks,” Ricks said of the offensive attack. “I think we executed it well, we just missed a few down the stretch.”

The two teams entered the locker room tied at 30-30. But, Loyola quickly built up its largest lead of the night at 35-30 three minutes into the second half. Less than five minutes later, Drake reclaimed the lead, 38-37, on Ricks' seventh three-pointer of the evening.

“Gary and other guys knocking shots down covers a lot of warts and we got lucky a couple of times when we played behind the post,” Giacoletti said. “It was great to see Gary knock some shots down and we made that change we talked about tonight.”

From that point, the lead changed hands seven times before the Drake defense fell behind in the post one too many times to allow Thomas to put in the eventual game-winning buckets.

“We took steps in the right direction tonight,” Giacoletti added. “We haven't played in a road game that came down to the wire like that and there were a lot of situations that we haven't been in before tonight.”

The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday afternoon in the Knapp Center when they host MVC-leading Indiana State at 2:05 p.m. The contest will be broadcast regionally on Mediacom MC22.

“Hopefully we can take this tonight and run with it,” Ricks said. “We're focusing on taking this momentum to Saturday.”

Saturday's game will include a specia 'Family Four-Pack' deal with four general admission tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks for $44. To purchase, click here, and enter the special offers code FAMILY.