ST. LOUIS – ShanQuan Hemphill, Tucker DeVries and Roman Penn combined for 32 of Drake's 37 points in the second half to power the Bulldogs to a 65-52 victory past Southern Illinois in the quarterfinal round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Enterprise Center Friday night.

The Bulldogs, winning a season best sixth straight game, improved to 23-9, marking the second straight season the program has won 23 games and fifth time in school history.

Hemphill scored a season-high 19 points, while enjoying his second double-double of season with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He also reached the 1,000 career point club, pushing his career total to 1,013 points. Hemphill's 10 rebounds surpassed his combined total of six rebounds in previous two outings vs. Salukis this season.

DeVries became the all-time leader in freshman scoring (436) passing Rayvonte Rice. 

Penn and DeVries added 13 points apiece. DeVries had 11 points in the second half, while Penn had eight.

Marcus Domask scored 18 points, while Lance Jones added 15 points for the Salukis who closed out the season with a 16-15 record
Drake's Garrett Sturtz scored nine points-eight in the first half, while collecting four steals. It marked the eighth time he has collected three-plus steals in a game this season.

A little over a minute into the contest, ShanQuan Hemphill was out in the open for a slam and shortly after, Tremell Murphy had a dunk of his own with a put-back as Drake trailed 7-6 at the 16:59 mark of the first half.

Five minutes later, Okay Djamgouz sank a wing triple to even the score at 13 apiece.

The Bulldog offense went cold from 6:59-2:47 when SIU embarked on a 7-0 run to lead 24-17. Drake responded with an 11-2 run to close out the first half highlighted by a Roman Penn old-fashioned 3-point play and Garrett Sturtz bucket in the final seconds before halftime, when the Bulldogs controlled a 28-26 advantage.

Drake made its last four shot attempts of the first half and its first four attempts of the second half after Hemphill drove inside for a 36-32 lead with 17:36 left in the second half.  

A 9-1 run propelled Drake to its first double digit lead of the evening (43-33) with 11:58 remaining in the second half. The Bulldogs kept the foot on the gas pedal to defeat SIU, 65-53.

Drake, which leads the MVC in steals (7.0 avg.) collected 10 steals, marking the 15th time in the last 17 games it collected seven or more steals. It also marked the fifth time Drake has collected 10 or more steals in a game this season.

Drake's Tremell Murphy, making his 100th start, scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked two shots giving him 10 blocked shots in his last four games

The Bulldogs will meet No. 2 seeded Missouri State in the semifinal round with a 5 p.m. tip-off. Drake advanced to the semifinal round of the MVC Tournament for the 10th time in program history, including the fourth straight year under coach Darian DeVries.