DES MOINES, Iowa - Drake's Graham Woodward (Edina, Minn.) and Kale Abrahamson (West Des Moines, Iowa) combined to score 53 points to lead the Drake University men's basketball team to an 87-70 victory over Abilene Christian Tuesday evening at the Knapp Center. With the win, head coach Ray Giacoletti earned his 200th career win.
Abrahamson scored 30 points, the second highest tally of his career, while shooting 5-of-8 from the three-point line with four assists. Woodward went 4-of-6 from the arc to record a career-high 23 points. Sophomore Ore Arogundade (Chicago, Ill.) finished with a career high seven rebounds, while Abrahamson had eight and Jacob Enevold (Lunderskov, Denmark) contributed six as Drake (5-7) held a 12-rebound advantage over ACU (4-8).
ACU was led by freshman standout Jaylen Franklin's career-high 24 points while Jaren Lewis added 15 for the Wildcats.
"I'm pleased with our effort and mentality tonight," said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. "I've seen a lot of different things happen in games before Christmas break and we've had the right mentality in practice starting yesterday and shoot around today. That's what I'm most pleased about. We were doing some things that will correlate to helping us at a later date."
An opening three-pointer by Arogundade gave the Bulldogs an early lead, which was maintained for 13 minutes total minutes during the first half. The Bulldogs ended the half shooting 62.5 percent from the three-point range and 66.7 percent from the field. Heading into halftime, the Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run fueled by four-straight defensive stops to take a 43-32 lead into the locker room.
Abrahamson scored 20 of his points in the second half and four of his three-pointers to help Drake build a 19-point, 65-46, lead midway through the second half. Abilene Christian later responded with a 7-0 run to trim the lead to 10 points, 74-64, with 4:19 left. However, Abrahamson drained a pair of three-pointers in the final three minutes of the game to thwart any comeback hopes for the Wildcats.
The Bulldogs will have a small holiday break before returning to the court to face to Wichita State on Thursday, Jan. 31, to begin the MVC portion of their season. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Koch Arena.
