PEORIA, Ill. – A cold shooting stretch in the second half proved to be costly for the Drake men's basketball team in a 73-61 loss at Bradley inside Carver Arena on Sunday, Feb. 26 with the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title on the line.

"Our guys played incredibly hard, but we just didn't play as well as we have been," head coach Darian DeVries said. "Give a lot of credit to Bradley, they played extremely physical. It was a bad time for us to not play our best."

Bradley (23-8, 16-4 in MVC play) held Drake (24-7, 15-5) in check from beyond the arc (5-for-21) as the Bulldogs shot 36.1 percent (24-for-63) from the field.

D.J. Wilkins connected on four 3-pointers to wind up with 15 points while snagging five rebounds. Roman Penn stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Darnell Brodie added 12 points with five rebounds while Tucker DeVries contributed 11 points and five rebounds.

Nate Ferguson and Brodie converted layups as the Bulldogs grabbed a 15-14 edge nearly halfway through the first half (10:40 left). Duke Deen caught fire from behind the arc for Bradley with back-to-back trifectas for a 26-19 home team lead at then under-8 media timeout.

The Braves continued to find success from deep as Connor Hickman drilled a left wing trey as the Braves led 33-24 with five minutes to go before halftime. Trailing 35-27 with 2:40 left in the first half, Drake closed out the frame on a 7-2 spurt while trailing 37-34 at the break.

Tucker DeVries fired and sank a left side 3-pointer to put Drake ahead, 41-40 at the 16:05 mark of the second half. Bradley responded with a 15-0 run spanning nearly seven minutes to create a 55-41 Bradley advantage with nine minutes left ticking.

With 8:15 to play in regulation, the Bulldogs took some momentum back with an old-fashioned 3-point play by Garrett Sturtz and a Wilkins corner trey to trim the deficit to 55-48 while forcing Bradley into one of its 16 turnovers. Drake poked loose a total of nine steals on the afternoon.

Bradley was boosted by the sellout crowd of 10,458 to build its lead to double figures again and did not look back. The closest Drake came was within eight points with 2:38 remaining after DeVries hit a pair of free throws with the visitors behind 65-57. The Braves finished off the game to claim its first MVC regular season since 1996.

"We're going to regroup," Darian DeVries said. "We are going to get ready to head down to St. Louis and try to win three games."

Drake will be the No. 2 seed at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and will play on Friday, March 3 at 6 p.m. against the winner of the No. 7 Murray State versus No. 10 Valparaiso game.

TEAM NOTES
•Drake had its 10-game winning streak and six-game road winning streak snapped with its first loss since Jan. 18 to move to 24-7 overall. Bradley has now won 10 games in a row.
•Road teams have won the last seven 'winner-take-all' games determining the MVC regular season champion.
•Drake's bench scored two points, the Bulldogs are 2-5 in MVC games when their bench scores 10 points or less.
•10,458 is the largest crowd that Drake has played in front of this season.
•Drake finished the month of February with a 7-1 record.
•Drake had four players score in double figures, moving its record to 9-2 when that feat occurred.
•Drake moved to 3-2 on games played on Sunday this season.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
•Graduate swingman Garrett Sturtz, appearing in an MVC all-time record 163rd career game (also NCAA active games leader), collected 10 points and three steals.
•Sturtz increased his school career rebound total to 910 boards.
•Roman Penn scored 12 points and swiped a season-high four steals.
•Graduate guard D.J. Wilkins made four 3-point baskets for the second straight game, surpassing 300 career 3-point baskets.
•It also marked the 12th time Wilkins has made three or more treys in a game this season, including the 48th time in his career.
•Wilkins is only three points away from passing Lynnrick Rogers for seventh on Drake's all-time scoring list.
•Penn increased his school career record assists total to 590.
•Penn was also Drake's leading rebounder with six.
 
THE SERIES
•The Braves have won four of the last five meetings to extend their all-time series lead to 93-69.