PEORIA, Ill. – Led by 32 points from senior Reed Timmer (New Berlin Wis.), the Drake University men's basketball team defeated Bradley, 78-68, Saturday evening at Carver Arena. Timmer's 32-point outburst came on an evening in which he became the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,812 career points to hand Bradley its first home loss of the season.
 
Timmer, who matched a career high, shot 8-of-16 on a historic night while Nick McGlynn (Stoughton, Wis.) added 14 points and five rebounds and freshman Jalen Gibbs (Waldorf, Md.) chipped in 10 points.
 
"He played with so much confidence and poise," Drake head coach Niko Medved said of Timmer. "You look over his career and who he is as a student-athlete; to become the all-time leading scorer, he's a hall of famer at Drake and for it to come like this in a huge road win is special."
 
However, the road win was earned by a defensive effort and switch to a zone that held the Braves to 37.3 percent shooting and just a 5-of-26 performance from the three-point arc.
 
"We started going zone on makes, which we've done a little," Medved said. "It was pretty good to us and we were able to contain them a little bit and they didn't shoot the ball as well. Offensively, we were attacking well, putting the ball on the floor and making some timely shots."
 
The contest was tight throughout the first 32 minutes until Drake (13-12, 7-5 MVC) was able to build a double-digit lead in the final eight minutes to earn its third MVC road win of the season and first season sweep of an MVC opponent since the 2014-15 season.
 
"We showed a lot of character tonight," Medved said. "Bradley has been playing terrific and to perform the way that we did showed a lot of tenacity and fight. It was a phenomenal night for our team."
 
Bradley (17-6, 7-5 MVC) was led by 20 points from Darrell Brown and a double-double from Donte Thomas with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs held a lead for the opening minutes of the second half until Bradley briefly took a lead six minutes into the period. However, a 15-2 Drake run gave the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the night at 63-52 with 7:56 left in the contest. Timmer scored eight points during that run to give the Bulldogs a small cushion. Bradley twice pulled within three possessions, but both times Drake countered to stretch the advantage back into double-digits.
 
In the final minutes, Drake thwarted any Bradley comeback hopes by getting the ball into Timmer's hands and forcing the Braves to foul the 88.2 percent free-throw shooting guard. Timmer was 10-of-12 at the line on the evening and 6-of-6 in the final minute.
 
Drake took the lead 4:27 into the first half on a Timmer jumper and held the lead for all but 46 seconds for the remainder of the half as the defense held Bradley to 40 percent shooting to take a 36-33 lead into the locker room. Timmer scored 15 of his points in the opening half, including a three-pointer at 4:56 that made him the program's all-time leading scorer and helped give Drake a four-point, 29-25, lead. McGlynn added nine points and five boards in the first half.
 
The Bulldogs remain on the road and in Illinois for their next contest, a Wednesday evening meeting with MVC leader Loyola at 7 p.m.