VALPARAISO, Ind. – The Drake men's basketball team took to the road for its first Missouri Valley Conference game of the 2024-25 season on Thursday night against the Valparaiso Beacons. Behind the efforts of Bennett Stirtz, who tied his career-high with 29 points, the Bulldogs came away with the win, 66-60.
 
A slow start and turnovers saw the Bulldogs face a deficit in the early stages of the contest. After missing their first three attempts from beyond the arc, Daniel Abreu connected on a corner three-ball to put the score at 12-8.
 
Drake erased the deficit and took its first lead of the game at 17-16 with 9:25 remaining in the period as the shots started to fall. The Bulldogs used a pair of free throws from Tavion Banks, a Nate Ferguson dunk, and a three-pointer by Stirtz to jump ahead.
 
Defense then turned into offense for Drake. On back-to-back possessions the Bulldogs scored off Valpo turnovers extending their lead to double-digits, 33-23, just before halftime.
 
Seconds before the buzzer sounded, Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro sunk a three-ball to cut the Bulldog lead to nine and the two sides went to their locker rooms with the score sitting at 35-26.
 
Stirtz led all scorers at the break with 11 points going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field along with a pair from the charity stripe. Isaiah Shaw paced the Beacons recording 10 points in the period.
 
Coming out of the break, Drake stretched its lead out to 14, but Valpo continued to hang around. The Bulldogs and the Beacons traded buckets over a two-minute stretch and a lay-in from Tyler Schmidt closed the gap back to eight points, 48-40, with 11:01 to go.
 
Moments later, Valparaiso's hot shooting continued. The Bulldog lead was cut down to four to put the score at 52-48 following consecutive three-point scores from Schmidt and All Wright at the 7:02 mark.
 
At the under-4 media timeout, the Bulldogs held on to a three-point lead, 55-52. The Drake offense continued to play through Stirtz, who reached 21 points following a pair of free throws, but had gone without a make from the floor for over three minutes.
 
The contest was brought even at 55-all immediately out of the timeout with Schmidt continuing to pour it in for the Beacons. The fifth-year guard drained his third triple with 3:41 remaining.
 
Drake continued to look to Stirtz down the stretch and the junior continued to come through. With :45 ticks remaining, the Liberty, Missouri, native finished a conventional three-point play to make it 63-58 ball game.
 
The Bulldogs used a trio of free throws in the final seconds to secure the conference victory, 66-60.
 
"It's hard to win on the road," Drake head coach Ben McCollum said. "We have just really struggled to put teams away and I think it's just from a scoring perspective. We need to be a little more dynamic offensively. The teams that we have played have been so good and now we have been scouted a lot. We're going to get there and from my understanding [Valparaiso] has always been a notorious tough place to play. It was tough tonight, but they did a good job."
 
Drake returns to the court for its next game on Thursday, Dec. 12 as it hosts St. Ambrose from the Knapp Center.
 
Team Notes
•Drake's 8-0 start marks the third time a Bulldog team has won its first eight games to open the season: 8-0, 1970-71 and 18-0, 2020-21.
•Drake is just one of nine teams remaining in NCAA Division I that is still undefeated.
•Ben McCollum earned his 402nd career collegiate victory, improving his collegiate career coaching record to 402-91 in 16 years.
•The Bulldogs out-rebounded Valparaiso, 31-21.
•Drake's defense held Valparaiso without a basket for the last 3 minutes 41 seconds of the game.
•Drake shot 54.8 percent from the floor, making 23 of 42 shots. It marked the third time this season the Bulldogs shot 50 percent or better in a game. 
•There were three lead changes and two ties in the game.
•Drake forced Valparaiso into five straight turnovers in a 93-second span (2:48 to 1:15), expanding a 29-23 lead into a 34-23 advantage.
•Drake, an original charter member of the Missouri Valley Conference, opened its 118th season of MVC competition (1540th league game) with tonight's game at Valparaiso.
•This marked the sixth time in the last seven seasons since the 2018-19 campaign that Drake has opened the MVC season on the road including the third straight year.
•This also was the third time in the last four years Drake has played Valparaiso to open MVC play. Drake earned a 73-66 victory past Valparaiso in Des Moines to open the 2021-22 MVC season and won at Valparaiso, 83-65, to begin the 2023-24 MVC season.
 
Individual Notes
•Drake junior guard Bennett Stirtz tied a career high with 29 points, enjoying his third 20-plus scoring game of the season (16th of career).
•Stirtz scored 18 points in the second half including 11 straight points for Drake during a 5 minute 44-second span (6:28 to 45 seconds in second half).
•Stirtz played a solid floor game with five rebounds and a game-high four assists.
•Junior swingman Tavion Banks came off the bench tying a career high with 12 points including eight in the first half.
•Sophomore forward Cam Manyawu grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds—his third double-figure rebound game of the season (12th in his career)
•Graduate guard Mitch Mascari had his streak of making 20 straight free throws to open the season come to an end when he missed an attempt with 4:05 left in the game.
 
The Series
•Drake, winning its seventh straight game against Valparaiso, leads the series, 13-8.