By Megan Leverenz - Drake Athletic Communications Student Assistant

DES MOINES, Iowa ­– The Drake University men's basketball team suffered a tough, 80-75, overtime loss against visiting Loyola University in the team's final home game of the season, Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Knapp Center. With the loss, the Bulldogs secured the No. 7 seed  in next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Sophomore Jacob Enevold Jensen (Lunderskov, Denmark) led Drake (9-20, 6-11 MVC) with a career-high 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting and added a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) followed with 15 points and five assists.

“Offensively, it was his best night, maybe since he's been here,” Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti said of Enevold's performance.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, defense was the issue all evening as Loyola converted on 61.5 percent of its shots and shot 57.1 percent from the three-point arc. Christian Thomas and Earl Peterson each scored 20 points for the Ramblers.

Senior Trevor Berkeley (Tucker, Ga.) earned Drake's first five points of the game, converting a three-pointer and later stealing the ball for an easy layup. He and redshirt senior Karl Madison (Springfield, Ill.) each contributed two more points, giving Drake an 11-9 advantage eight minutes into the game.

Consecutive three-pointers by senior Jordan Daniels (Fontana, Calif.) off the bench gave Drake a 17-10 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half. Later, seniors Gary Ricks Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Chris Caird (Daventry, England) added another six points from behind the arc, increasing Drake's lead to 23-14. Caird finished the evening with 12 points on four three-pointers.

Loyola (17-13, 7-10 MVC) went on a 7-0 run, narrowing the deficit to just one point, 27-26, with three minutes left in the half. Caird broke the run with a three-pointer, but couldn't stop the Ramblers from taking the lead for the first time of the game with a 9-0 run and holding a 35-30 advantage going into halftime.

“We've got to go back to the basics,” commented Timmer. “We have to start trusting each other and really have the mentality on the defensive end to buckle down.”

Enevold opened the second half with Drake's first six points and Timmer chimed in with a layup, closing the gap to 42-38. Shortly after, the Bulldogs used a 6-0 run to decrease the deficit to three points.

Ricks and Caird contributed six more points from behind the three-point line, putting Drake within two points of the Ramblers with 10 minutes left in play, 56-54.  Later, Enevold hauled in a crucial offensive rebound and put it back in to tie the Ramblers, 58-58, with 7:17 left in the game after back-to-back buckets from the center.

Timmer put Drake back in the lead from behind the free-throw line for the first time since the opening half. During that span, Loyola suffered a 3:46 scoring drought as Drake continued to build its lead, 65-62, with layups from Timmer and Enevold.

Rambler freshman Ben Richardson tied the score 65-65 with 3:09 left in play as he added 12 points in the win. On the next possession, junior Earl Peterson hit a jumper, giving Loyola a 67-65 advantage at the one-minute mark. The Bulldogs answered with a layup by Timmer, tying the score 67-67 with 36 seconds remaining. Loyola held the ball for the last shot, but the attempt hit the front of the rim as time expired to send the game into overtime.

Loyola took a quick lead in OT before Enevold responded with a layup, narrowing Drake's deficit, 72-70. Peterson added two more points, giving Loyola a four-point lead with 2:23 left in play. Drake tried to keep pace, but Loyola responded with back-to-back jumpers by Jeff White. Caird answered with a three-pointer, but it wasn't enough to recover from the five-point deficit as Loyola scored on six of its eight overtime possessions.

“We've got one more opportunity to try to get better defensively before we move into the tournament,” said coach Giacoletti looking ahead to this weekend's regular-season finale.

Drake will close the regular season in Carbondale, Ill., against Southern Illinois  on Saturday, Feb. 28. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.