EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Three Evansville Purple Aces scored 20 or more points to defeat the Drake University men's basketball team, 87-70, at the Ford Center Tuesday, Feb. 14.
 
Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) led Drake (7-20, 5-10 MVC) with 20 points, four rebounds and three assists for his seventh 20-point game of the season. Graham Woodward (Edina, Minn.) added 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from the three-point arc with the Bulldogs connecting on 10-of-22 shots from the arc.
 
"I'm proud of our effort offensively, they did a great job trusting each other, moving the ball and having an offense that was good enough to win a lot of games," said Drake head coach Jeff Rutter. "Defensively, you give up 57 percent shooting and three guys score 20 on you, we didn't have an answer for that."
 
Evansville (14-14, 5-10 MVC) was led by 22 points from Ryan Taylor and the Missouri Valley Conference's leading scorer, Jaylon Brown. Forward David Howard added a career-high 21 points and nine rebounds to help the Aces to a 44-18 advantage in points in the paint and a 15-rebound advantage on the glass to propel the Aces to their fourth-straight win.
 
Evansville scored the first eight points of the game without a miss before a Billy Wampler (Eau Claire, Wis.) three-pointer got the Bulldogs' offense in gear three minutes into the game. Wampler finished the game with nine points, all from the arc. Drake pulled within five points in the opening minutes before the Aces stretched the lead out to 13 points, 32-19, with 6:23 left. Much of that lead was built near the basket as the Aces held a 22-6 advance in points in the paint at the point.
 
However, the Bulldogs rallied to close the half on an 18-8 run and trim the margin to just three points, 40-37, at halftime as Ore Arogundade (Chicago, Ill.) collected an offensive rebound in the corner, turned and buried a three-pointer as time expired. Timmer scored eight of his 16 first-half points during that run.
 
However, the Bulldogs were unable to turn the corner in the second half. Seven minutes into the half, Drake trailed by just three, 55-52, after a Woodward three-pointer as the junior had another strong showing on both ends of the court.
 
"You'd almost be hard pressed to find a better two-way player, than Graham Woodward," Rutter added. "He's a tough, gritty player and he's playing the right way, he's finding his teammates and has given us great minutes."
 
Evansville answered Woodward three-pointer with a 16-3 run in less than four minutes to take a 71-55 lead. Five minutes later, that lead ballooned to 19 points and Drake would get no close than 16 points the rest of the way as the team was just 2-of-8 from the field in the final seven minutes of the game to dash any comeback hopes.
 
The Bulldogs hit the final one-sixth of the MVC season this weekend when they host Missouri State at the Knapp Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. with the contest broadcast on MVC TV affiliates.
 
"This group has a lot to play for and they're going to have themselves prepared and we'll be ready for a fight against a really good Missouri State team. This team is going to finish strong and take some momentum into the MVC Tournament."