DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University men's basketball team held off Concordia – St. Paul, 81-75, in an exhibition contest Saturday night at the Knapp Center.

Billy Wampler (Eau Claire, Wis.) led the Bulldogs with a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds. Wampler was followed by Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.), who added 20 points.

In their first game as Bulldogs, transfers De'Antae McMurray (Alton, Ill.) and T.J. Thomas (Stone Mountain, Ga.) added nine and eight points, respectively. Thomas also tallied seven rebounds while McMurray had three assists and no turnovers.

The relatively close and competitive featured six lead changes and seven ties. The Bulldogs took advantage of their opportunities at the free-throw line, making 27 of their 33 free throws. Drake also capitalized on Concordia's 17 turnovers by scoring 12 points off CSP errors. 

"Defensively, we need to be better, but take nothing away from Concordia-St. Paul," said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. "We had to make some adjustments and T.J. Thomas did a good job switching those ball screens for us."

The game opened with a pair of free throws by Timmer, but it took both teams 1:30 to score a field goal. After trading baskets, the Bulldogs went on an 11-0 run to take a 16-4 lead. Drake's defense also held Concordia without a field goal for 8:53 to take a 37-32 lead at halftime.

Concordia answered with four quick points to open the second half, tying the Bulldogs at 37-37. The Golden Bears took their first lead, 45-44, at 15:48 before extending to their largest lead of the game 65-61 at 8:02.  Holding Concordia scoreless for 3:30, Drake went on a 9-0 run including a pair of free throws by Thomas to give the Bulldogs a 67-65 lead. Less than a minute later, McMurray hit the first of two big three-pointers to seal the exhibition win for the Bulldogs.

"We got a lot out of this and I'm glad it went down the way it did," Giacoletti added. "We needed to be able to function and play in a close basketball game. We made four out of five stops to end the game and stepped up and made our free throws. Those are the things that will help us down the road."

The Bulldogs open their regular season on Nov. 11 against South Dakota at the Knapp Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on The Valley on ESPN3 and 1350 ESPN Des Moines.