DES MOINES, Iowa - After reasserting its home-court dominance Saturday against Evansville, the Drake University men's basketball team remains in the Knapp Center for a critical Missouri Valley Conference matchup with the Valparaiso Crusaders Wednesday, Feb. 19.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be televised on Mediacom MC22, streamed on ESPN+ and on the radio at ESPN 1350. Drake and Valpo enter the game with matching 7-7 records as part of a four-team tie for fifth place in the Valley standings.
The Bulldogs (17-10, 7-7 MVC) remain in Des Moines, where they are 13-1 this season, after a strong performance against the Purple Aces on Sunday.
Anthony Murphy had a career game with 20 points and 13 rebounds, both career-highs for the senior. The game marked his first double-double of the season and his fourth in his college career.
Murphy's performance was big for the Bulldogs, with half of his points coming from the free-throw line. Drake attempted a season-high 42 free-throw attempts, 32 of them going in. The team also shot 22-of-33 inside the arc.
Right behind Murphy was junior guard
Roman Penn, who had 19 points on the evening. Penn also added six rebounds, five assists, and two steals to maintain his season-long efforts for cross-court consistency and rank 26th nationally in assists this season with and MVC best 5.8 assists per game.
Drake lost at Valparaiso earlier in the season, 66-61, despite 21 points and seven assists from Penn.
The Crusaders (14-13, 7-7 MVC) are led in scoring for the season by Javon Freeman-Liberty, who averages 19.7 points-per-game and is the reigning MVC Player of the Week. Last time out at Illinois State, Freeman-Liberty led the team to a comeback win with 25 points, seven rebounds, five steals and three assists.
Following Wednesday's game, the Bulldogs will head back out on the road to take on Illinois State on Feb. 22, and Loyola on Feb. 25, before returning home to close out the regular season against UNI on Feb. 29 in a nationally televised game on ESPN2.
