The Drake Men's Basketball team opened the 2018-2019 season with a dominating 98-52 win against Buena Vista Thursday, Nov 8, in the first regular season game at the Knapp Center.

In the first game under head coach Darian DeVries, the Bulldogs had a strong first half, jumping out to a 21-4 lead en route to a 49-27 halftime advantage.

"Our guys came out and were really sharp early," DeVries said. "We got the lead extended right from the jump and that was one of the things we wanted to do. We had a lull in the middle of the half but had a lot of guys contribute."

Freshman Liam Robbins (Davenport, Iowa) and sophomore Noah Thomas (Sydney, Australia) each broke double digit points in the first half, with 12 and 10 respectively.

The Bulldogs were led by senior Nick Norton (Bloomington, Ill.) with 17 total points. Norton also had a game-high five assists. Robbins, Thomas, and juniors, Tremell Murphy (Griffith, Ind.) and Anthony Murphy (Griffith, Ind.) weren't far behind with 16, 15, 14, and 12 total points, respectively.

"I thought we shared the ball well, got out and ran and did the things we take a lot of pride in well," DeVries added.
Robbins also finished with six blocked shots to tie for the second most in a single game in Drake history.

As a team, Drake was 10-for-25 (40 percent) from three-point range and Norton was 3-for-4.

Buena Vista was paced by Garrett Sittner's 12 points as Drake limited the Beavers to just 22.2 percent shooting.

Drake travels to Colorado for its next game on Nov 13. Last season, the Buffaloes edged the Bulldogs, 86-81, in the Paradise Jam.

The Bulldogs return to the Knapp Center on Nov 17 at 2 p.m. when they face Texas State.