ESTERO, Fla. - Weber State's Jeremy Senglin scored a game-high 34 points to help defeat the Drake University men's basketball team, 74-58, in the semifinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase Tuesday evening.
Senglin teamed with fellow guard McKay Cannon to shoot 12-of-18 from the three-point arc to advance Weber State (3-2) to Wednesday's championship game. Drake (2-3) will play Pepperdine at 5 p.m. CST in the third-place game.
"The thing is, you can't let perimeters sprint off the staggers and score 34," said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. "We were trying to split the floor and make him go either way. Our defense should be able to absorb what they're going to do. We limited their big pretty well, but the problem is we gave up five offensive rebounds to him."
The Bulldogs were led by 18 points from Graham Woodward (Edina, Minn.) on 4-of-7 shooting from the three-point arc. Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) added 15 points with four assists.
"I thought we shared the ball better in the second half and that's what we need to be as players and as program," Giacoletti said. "They played very well tonight and shot the ball well tonight."
As a team, Drake shot 40.4 percent and faced a seven-rebound deficit as WSU's Joel Bolomboy recorded his fifth-straight double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
"There's going to be somebody that's on and somebody that's not," Giacoletti added. "We have to trust each other as we move on to make simple plays and find a way to help the team. We need to share the ball, play the right way and establish a post game. We have to get those touches."
Drake led early, but a 15-0 WSU run gave the Wildcats a 20-10 lead midway through the first half. Drake answered moments later with a 9-0 run to pull within a point, but back-to-back buckets from Senglin gave WSU a 33-28 advantage at halftime.
WSU opened the second half with a 13-point, 47-34, lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Senglin and Cannon. The Wildcats would lead by double-digits for the majority of the half until four-straight points from Drake got the Bulldogs back within seven points at 65-58 with three minutes to play.
However, Senglin answered the bell again with a three-pointer to give the Wildcats a double-digit lead they would not relinquish as they made six-straight free throws down the stretch.
Drake's next game against Pepperdine on Wednesday at 5 p.m. CST will pit the Bulldogs against another Ray Giacoletti pupil as the Waves head coach, Marty Wilson, was a member of Giacoletti's staff at Utah.
