CHICAGO, Ill. - In a game that featured 13 lead changes, Loyola secured the final lead of the afternoon to defeat the Drake University men's basketball team, 68-63, Saturday at Gentile Arena.
Ten of those lead changes came in the second half as neither team led by more than five points in the second half of the back-and-forth contest.
Drake (5-15, 0-8 MVC) was led by Ore Arogundade's (Chicago, Ill.) 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting to match his career high. Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) and Graham Woodward (Edina, Minn.) each added 11 points with Woodward registering five of the Bulldogs' 14 assists.
"I'm proud of our guys, that's about as good as we've played on the road in a while," said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. "I thought we did some good things and feel bad we couldn't get over the hump. But with that kind of effort it's going to happen eventually. We had some guys come off the bench and give us some good minutes."
Loyola (9-11, 2-6 MVC) benefitted from Montel James' 17 points with Milton Doyle adding 13 points.
Drake briefly took the lead twice in the first three minutes of the second half before Loyola rattled off 7-straight points but were unable to build a lead greater than five during that span. Drake claimed the lead via an 11-3 run, but the Ramblers went on to drain four three-pointers in 2:20 to create a 59-54 advantage with 5:25 left off back-to-back makes from Donte Ingram.
Two minutes later, the Bulldogs jumped back in front off a pair of three-pointers from Kale Abrahamson (West Des Moines, Iowa) and Graham Woodward (Edina, Minn.) to take a 61-60 lead. However, with 1:23 left, Loyola took the lead for good on a Montel James layup. James and Milton Doyle then combined to go 6-of-6 from the free-throw line to seal the victory as Drake could not convert on either of its two attempts during its final full possession of the game.
The Ramblers began their scoring with an 8-0 ignited by a pair of three-pointers to take an early 8-5 lead. Loyola stretched that run to a 16-3 spurt to take a 16-8 lead on back-to-back layups from White with 11:38 left in the period.
The Bulldogs answered by scoring 15 of the next 21 points to take a brief 23-22 lead on a Billy Wampler (Eau Claire, Wis.) three-pointer with 3:13 left in the half. However, 7-straight points from Loyola erased the Bulldogs' lead and helped account for the Ramblers' 29-26 lead at halftime. Timmer scored seven of his points in the first half with Arogundade adding five points as the Bulldogs shot just 10-of-28 in the opening period but converted on 44.7 percent of their second-half attempts.
Drake remains on the road for its next contest at Illinois State Jan. 26. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. at Redbird Arena with the contest broadcast on MVC TV affiliates.
