NICEVILLE, Fla. – The Drake men's basketball team took to the hardwood on Friday night from Raider Arena to open play at the Emerald Coast Classic and suffered a loss at the hands of the LSU Tigers, 71-62.
The Bulldogs felt the size presence that the Tigers brought in the early goings on both the offensive and defensive ends. LSU scored its first three baskets all in the paint and recorded two blocks on attempts from the Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, Drake went on an offensive drought missing its first seven shots of the contest.
Braden Appelhans ended the scoreless streak with a layup at the 15:57 mark.
The shots eventually started to fall for the Bulldogs as an 8-2 run, sparked by a three-ball from
Griffen Goodbary and capped with an and-one by the freshman, propelled Drake in front, 12-10, at the under-12 timeout.
However, out of the break LSU went on a pair of runs to retake the lead. A 10-0 run followed by another stretch of 10-0 in favor of the Tigers set the score at 33-17 with just over four minutes remaining in the half.
When the halftime horn sounded, the Bulldogs trailed by 14 with the score showing 38-24 on the scoreboard.
Jalen Quinn led all scorers at the break hitting double-digits with 11 to go along with four rebounds. Goodbary ended the half with six points and five rebounds, which tied career-highs in both categories. Drake shot just 27-percent (8-30) from the field over the first twenty minutes of action, while LSU hit at a clip of 51-percent (17-33).
The Bulldogs started to connect from beyond the arc to begin the second half, which cut the deficit down to eight at 42-34. Back-to-back triples from
Jaehshon Thomas and Quinn sparked Drake to a quick 10 points in the frame to reduce the LSU lead down to single digits.
LSU continued to go to their bread and butter with points in the paint and getting to the charity stripe as the half moved along increasing its lead back to 15, but Thomas had an answer with another pair of three's to keep the Bulldogs in striking distance, 55-46.
With the Bulldogs still trailing by nine, 61-52, following a tough step-back jumper from Quinn, which tied his career-high mark of 20 points, the senior then saw his night cut short as he was called for his fifth foul with just over four minutes remaining leaving Drake without its leading scorer down the stretch.
Over the final few minutes LSU tried to slow down the pace and force Drake to foul, but the Bulldogs countered by throwing on a full court press in hopes of creating some turnovers.
The defensive pressure from Drake did initially cause some trouble for the Tigers as a steal and subsequent three-ball from Goodbary made it a 66-60 ballgame, but LSU eventually iced the game away with free throws.
"I'm not into moral victories at the end of the day," Drake head coach Eric Henderson said. "Did we do some nice things? Certainly. And the thing that I take away most is we can grow from this. We had fight for 40 minutes I thought, especially in the first half. [LSU] got us a little bit in the second half. They only had one offensive rebound in the first half and we just fought like crazy. There's things to take away that are positive, but we're going to continue to grow. I promise you that."
Drake now has a quick turnaround as it goes up against Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. CT.
Team Notes
•The Bulldogs now have an overall record of 4-3 and are 1-1 in neutral site contests.
•Drake was held to a season-low in field goal percentage (36.1) on 22-of-61 shooting.
•Drake was slightly outrebounded, 41-34, but tallied six offensive boards to five by LSU.
•Drake and LSU matched each other in turnovers forced with seven a side.
•The Bulldogs scored nine points off turnovers compared to seven by LSU.
•Drake tallied five second chance points and held the Tigers to just three.
Individual Notes
•
Jalen Quinn tied his career-high with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. This marked his third 20-point game of the season.
•Freshman forward
Griffen Goodbary had a career night scoring 10 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists.
•
Jaehshon Thomas went for double figures pouring in a season-high 16 points. The senior led the Bulldogs from beyond the arc connecting on 4-of-6 from deep.
The Series
•Drake falls to 0-2 all-time against LSU.
