The Drake University men's basketball won its 21st game of the season and earned a season sweep of UNI with a 77-69 victory at the McLeod Center Wednesday night.
 
Drake's (21-2, 12-2 MVC) win was its third-straight in the series and first win in Cedar Falls since 2009 as Joseph Yesufu led the way with a career-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting with four three-pointers for the Bulldogs. Yesufu's performance came on the heels of his 18 points against the Panthers in last week's meeting between the two teams.
 
Garrett Sturtz also notched a career-best with 19 points, while Tremell Murphy added 14 points. Outside of scoring, Darnell Brodie had another double-figure night on the glass with 10 rebounds and Roman Penn had eight assists and four steals.
 
"It was a good win for us on the road," said Drake head coach Darian DeVries. "We knew it would be a tough, hard-fought game and it certainly was that. We had some guys step up in that second half that made some big plays to allow us to get that W."
 
Austin Phyfe led UNI (7-15, 5-11 MVC) with 19 points while Trae Berhow added 13 in the loss.
 
Yesufu had four first-half three-pointers to help Drake keep pace with a hot start from UNI as neither team led by more than a possession for the first 30 minutes of the game.
 
"I thought Joe was great, he gave us that pop we needed to get started in the first half and in the second half he did a great job getting in the paint and finishing at the rim," DeVries said. "That really kept our offense going and was the difference in the game for us."
 
UNI freshman Bowen Born tied the game at 45-45 on a three-pointer with 13:23 left, but Drake responded with a 12-2 run that included five points from Yesufu to take a double-digit lead less than three minutes later at 57-47. 
 
However, UNI prevented that lead from ballooning and a quick 5-0 run late in the period got the Panthers within six points at 66-60 with 3:37 remaining despite Drake shooting 62.1 percent in the second half. 
 
But Sturtz and Yesufu had the answer again with back-to-back buckets to stretch the lead back out to 10 points with 2:20 left. The Bulldogs then converted at the free-throw line to stymie the Panthers' attempts to extend the game.
 
"Every night you have to find different ways to win and tonight was no different," DeVries said. "Some different guys had to give us contributions to pull this one out. That's what league play is, especially in February."
 
The Bulldogs return home next to close their home schedule with a two-game series against Evansville Feb. 21 and 22 at the Knapp Center.