DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake men's basketball team was more competitive against Bradley this time around. The Bulldogs just had no answer for the Braves' long-range shooting.
 
Bradley buried 17 3-pointers, including nine in a row by Alex Huibregtse, and got out of the noisy Knapp Center with an 87-73 victory on Saturday evening.
 
The Bulldogs gave the crowd of 4,342, the largest of the season, ample reason to cheer at times, especially with 7-foot Isaiah Carr swatting away a season-high five shots. There simply were not enough of those moments to extend Drake's three-game winning streak, leaving the Bulldogs 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
 
Jalen Quinn continued his sensational play of late, leading the Bulldogs with 32 points on 10-for-18 shooting with two 3-pointers. He got to the free throw line often, sinking 10 of 11, and tacked on four rebounds and three assists.
 
The 6-foot-3 senior is averaging 29.7 points over the last six games, four of them victories, and is shooting 54.8 percent in that span – a surge that has hiked his league-leading scoring average to 20.3. It was his 12th game with at least 20 points, the most in the league.
 
Redshirt junior Andrew Alia notched the first double-double of his career with 13 points and a career-best 11 rebounds. Alia made all seven of his free throws and has now made 24 in a row. A couple of late treys gave Eli Shetlar nine points for the game and Carr scored three to go with his five blocks, two rebounds, an assist and a steal.
 
Huibregtse, in his sixth year of college basketball, finished with 29 points, including 26 in the second half with a sizzling display of outside shooting. He made his first nine shots from beyond the arc and wound up 9-fo-10, finally missing with 3:32 left in the game, which drew a brief cheer from the crowd. Huibregtse had gone 3-for-9 from deep in Bradley's previous game, an 85-70 loss at home to UIC.
 
Kai Yu, who had been averaging only 1.8 points, added 12 for the Braves, going 5-for-5 from the field with two treys. Bradley (15-8, 8-4) shot 17-for-26 on 3-pointers as a team – 65.4 percent – and was just 13-for-37 inside the arc.
 
Bradley overwhelmed Drake 93-66 in Peoria back on Jan. 7 and led 40-19 at the half in that one. The Bulldogs came out with plenty of energy this time and had the crowd roaring with a 15-3 run that 6-10 freshman Griffen Goodbary helped ignite with a quick burst off the bench.
 
Owen Larson started the run with a trey that pulled Drake into a 9-9 tie. Goodbary then blocked a shot, grabbed an offensive board and converted a traditional three-point play after taking a hard foul, all in the span of 83 seconds. Quinn followed with another three-point play after banking in a shot while falling to the floor, Jaehshon Thomas hit a jumper and Quinn dropped in a floater for a 19-12 Drake lead after a Carr block.
 
Moments later, Carr rejected two shots on the same possession, the second with a thwack that could be heard in the last row of the arena. After a media timeout, Carr got into the act by banking in a jump hook from the right side and the Bulldogs led 21-12.
 
The lead vanished quickly, however, and Drake was never ahead again. Bradley ran off 13 straight points in just under 2 minutes for a 25-21 lead.  The Braves eventually stretched their lead to 37-28 when Yu knocked down a shot from distance – Bradley was 8-for-11 on threes at that point – but the Bulldogs clawed back and trailed just 41-35 at the half when Quinn buried a deep triple with only four seconds before the buzzer.
 
Any hopes the Bulldogs had of getting any closer ended when Huibregtse knocked down three triples in a span of 1:45 and Corey Thomas buried another to extend the lead to 53-37. The Braves led by as many as 21, but Quinn kept it from getting any worse with his shot making and ability to get to the free throw line.
 
Quinn scored 11 of Drake's 14 points in one stretch and then Shetlar found the range with two triples, the first cutting the lead to 79-67 and the second drawing the Bulldogs to 83-73. But it got no closer and Bradley sank four free throws to finish it off.
 
After going 11-for-22 from distance in its previous game, an 82-78 victory over Evansville, Drake went an icy 6-for-25 and shot only 39.7 percent overall.
 
"We got off to such a great start," Drake head coach Eric Henderson said. "We had good energy, the crowd was into it and then, honestly, [Bradley] got a couple offensive rebounds that gave them energy and they got a couple three's off of that. Then it was downhill from there as far as guarding the arc. [Huibregtse] got hot and that dude is 15-of-17 from the arc against us this year. You've got to tip the cap, but I did feel like we were playing from behind a little bit too much. Physically, they wore us out a little bit too."
 
It was the 171st meeting between the two schools, the oldest rivalry in the MVC. Bradley leads the series 96-75 and has won three of the last four with the Bulldogs.
 
Now, two challenging road games await the Bulldogs in the week ahead. Drake plays at league-leading Belmont at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, then goes to Illinois State for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Friday, Feb. 6. They'll be back home to play Valparaiso on Monday, Feb. 9. That one tips at 6:30 p.m.
 
Team Notes
—Drake, which had a season-high three game winning streak snapped, slipped to 12-11 overall including a 6-6 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference.
—The Bulldogs are 5-7 in home games.
—There were two lead changes and three ties in the game.
—Drake shot 39.7 percent from the floor (23-58), including 40.7 percent (11-27) in the second half. It ended a streak of three straight games in which it had shot 50 percent or better in the second half after hitting 55.2 percent (16-29) in the second half against Murray State, 57.6 percent in the second half (15-26) at Indiana State last Saturday and 56.5 percent (13-23) against Evansville Wednesday.
—The Bulldogs owned a 14-9 advantage in fast break points.
—Drake outscored Bradley in points in the paint, 22-20. Bradley had dominated Drake in points in the paint in the previous game, 34-14.
—Drake fell to 4-10 when trailing at halftime.
—There was a season high crowd of 4,342.
 
Player Notes
—Senior transfer guard Jalen Quinn enjoyed his 12th 20-plus scoring game of the season (third 30-plus scoring game), leading Drake with 32 points—17 in the first half.
—The 12, 20-plus scoring games also are the most by a player in the Missouri Valley Conference this season.
—It marked Quinn's sixth straight 20-plus scoring game. He is averaging 28 points during that stretch: 21 at Southern Illinois, 28 at UIC, 34 vs. Murray State, 27 at Indiana State, 26 vs. Evansville, 32 vs. Bradley.
—Junior Andrew Alia added 13 points, including seven in the second half, along with a career-high 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
—Quinn made 10 of 11 free throw attempts. It marked the seventh game this season in which he has had 10 or more free throw attempts, including the fourth time in his last five outings.
—Senior transfer Isaiah Carr collected a season high five blocked shots.
—Wilguens Jr. Exacte, who had started in 13 games, missed his ninth consecutive game because of a foot injury.
 
The Series
—Bradley, earning its second straight win against the Bulldogs, owns a 96-75 series record against Drake.
—Drake's record against the Braves in Des Moines is 44-32.