DES MOINES, Iowa – Despite a furious fight to the finish, an uncharacteristic shooting performance thwarted the Drake University men's basketball team's hopes of ending the regular season with a win. The Bulldogs' off night allowed Valparaiso to escape the Knapp Center with a 69-64 win Saturday afternoon. Drake was held to a season-low 33.9 percent shooting in the loss and faced a 13-rebound deficit.
 
Drake (16-15, 10-8 MVC) was led by 28 points from Reed Timmer (New Berlin, Wis.) on 8-of-12 shooting. Valparaiso (15-16, 6-12 MVC) shot 46.7 percent as a team to pull away from the Bulldogs in the second half with 22 points from Derrik Smits on 10-of-14 shooting while Markus Golder and Tevonn Walker combined for 18 rebounds.
 
Prior to the game, the Bulldogs honored five seniors in their final home game at the Knapp Center. Despite the loss, the seniors' 10 MVC wins this season mark the most successful conference season in a decade for the program.
 
"As a competitor, this will sting tonight. We'll take tomorrow off and we've got to get better on Monday," said Drake head coach Niko Medved. "We still have a ton to play for and we've got to wake up and build on the positives. We've proven we can win in the Valley and that's our mindset heading to St. Louis."
 
The Bulldogs enter next week's MVC Tournament as the No. 4 seed and face No. 5 Bradley Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the Scottrade Center.
 
Valpo rolled out to an early 28-14 lead early in the contest as Drake continued to struggle from the field, making just four of its first 20 shots from the field.
 
"Valpo came out early and jumped on us," Medved said. "We had a lot of gameplan errors defensively that are very uncharacteristic of this team."
 
However, six-straight points from Timmer keyed an 8-0 the pulled the Bulldogs within four points, 28-22, with four minutes left in the period. That run maintained steam, stretching out to 16-straight points to give the Bulldogs the lead before Valpo added a bucket to knot the game at halftime, 30-30. Timmer scored 14 of his points in the first half to rally the Bulldogs from the early deficit while C.J. Rivers (Cahokia, Ill.) added six points.
 
The teams swapped leads to open the second half until eight-straight points from Valpo gave the Crusaders ad 51-42 lead with 12 minutes left in the contest. A Golder jumper with four minutes remaining put the Crusaders up 10 points, 59-49.
 
"We had a lot of trouble finishing in the lane, we struggled to finish and the numbers played that out," Medved added. "They were able to finish in the lane and that was the difference in the game."
 
Drake attempted to mount one final rally, an 8-0 spurt capped by a pair of De'Antae McMurray (Alton, Ill.) free throws to draw Drake within two points, 63-61, with 29 seconds left. McMurray's final points of the evening game him 10 for the game along with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists.
 
However, the Bulldogs could get no closer despite staying within striking distance until a pair of Valpo free throws capped the game to give the Crusaders a season sweep of the Bulldogs.