The Drake University men's basketball team takes to the road to face South Dakota in the second meeting between the two teams this season Friday, Dec. 18. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
The game is a rescheduled contest that was orginally slated to be played Wednesday evening before COVID-19 concerns within the South Dakota program necessitated a two-day delay.
Earlier this season, Drake defeated USD, 69-53, at the Little Apple Classic in what has been Drake's lowest-scoring game of the season.
Joseph Yesufu had a breakout game in that win with a career-high 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. USD is 1-5 this season, but coming off a 91-78 win over in-state rival South Dakota State.
The Bulldogs are averaging 84.0 points per game this season and have scored 80 or more points in five games this season, including four-straight. That offense has propelled Drake to a 6-0 start to tie for the third-best start to a season in school history behind only the 1979-80 (7-0) and 1970-71 (8-0) teams. Drake's six wins this season are tied for the second most in the nation behind only Xavier's seven wins.
Additionally, all six of Drake's wins have come by double-digits. Drake last had six-consecutive double-figure wins from Dec. 12-30, 1987, when it won six straight by an average of 12.8 points per game. Drake's current margin of victory is 23.8 points per game, the 27th best average in the nation. That scoring has been led by 52.8 percent shooting, the 20th best mark in the nation, combined with a 36.4 percent field goal defense, which ranks 27th.
Drake has had a different leading scorer in five of its six wins as no Bulldog is averaging more than 25 minutes a game in Drake's deep rotation. That scoring has been led by
Shanquan Hemphill's 12.5 points per game after he poured in a season high 23 points in the win over McKendree. That, combined with his 10 rebounds in a 28-point win over Air Force netted him Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year.
Following Friday's game, the Bulldogs return home, where they have won 22-straight non-conference games, to host Chicago State Dec. 20 at 2 p.m.
