The red-hot Drake University men's basketball team returns to the Knapp Center on Saturday, Dec. 29, for the team's final non-conference game of the 2018-19 season. Tipoff against Saturday's opponent, McKendree, is set for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN3.
 
Drake returns to the hardwood with a 10-2 record and a Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic championship after defeating SIUE, Rider, New Mexico State and San Diego last week to win the program's first tourney title since 2013. Additionally, the team's 10 wins before the start of conference play are its most since 2007-08.
 
Drake won the Las Vegas Classic title dramatically with a 110-103 double-overtime win that saw Nick Norton (Bloomington, Ill.) score a career-high 31 points while Brady Ellingson (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) added a career-best 25 points. Norton scored 21 of his points in overtime, including 14 in the second overtime period to lift the Bulldogs to victory and earn his third Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week honor.
 
McKendree, an NCAA Division II program and member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, is 5-6 this season and Saturday's game will be the Bearcats' third exhibition of the season. Earlier this year, the team fell to Northwestern, 83-44, and Indiana State, 80-63.
 
Drake and McKendree last met on Nov. 7, 2015, in an exhibition contest that Drake won, 95-78.
 
Following Saturday's non-conference game, the Bulldogs take to the road to begin MVC action Jan. 2 at Evansville.