(Peoria, Illinois) The Drake University men’s basketball team dropped its regular-season finale against Bradley, 67-61, on Saturday night at Peoria. With the result, the Bulldogs (24-3, 15-3 MVC) finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference and will hold the No. 2 seed in next week’s MVC Tournament.
Joe Yesufu led all scorers with 21 points to continue his strong play to close the regular season as the Bulldogs played their seventh game in 14 days to close the regular season.
“Obviously we’re extremely disappointed with the outcome,” said Drake head coach Darian DeVries. “We just couldn’t get anything going offensively tonight and never found any flow or rhythm. We’re just disappointed. It was obviously a big game for us, and the guys have fought so hard all year and left it all out there to the end, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”
DJ Wilkins collected 14 points on the night and buoyed Drake’s offense to begin the game, netting seven of the Bulldogs’ first nine points. Wilkins and Yesufu each provided two buckets to spark an 8-0 run midway through the first half. Soon after, Tremell Murphy broke out in transition for an and-one dunk to push the Bulldogs’ advantage to 18-15.
Transition play soon swung against the Bulldogs, as Bradley turned back-to-back turnovers into five quick points to take a 29-24 advantage into halftime.
After a Brave bucket to begin the second half, Drake rallied with a 7-0 burst to knot the contest at 31.
From there, the Bulldogs’ defense buckled down to hold Bradley scoreless for 5:26, but Drake’s offense mustered just four points in what proved to be a pivotal stretch.
The Bulldogs’ offensive struggles continued as they were held scoreless for the next 4:04, and the Braves rattled off a 7-0 run to gain a 45-41 advantage with 5:32 to play.
After misfiring from distance for most of the night, Bradley connected on back-to-back 3-pointers, including a banked triple, to extend its lead to eight with 2:54 remaining. The Braves finished 6-of-22 from behind the arc, but the Bulldogs couldn’t make up any ground, shooting just 2-of-17 from distance.
Bradley was able to salt the game away from the free-throw line, where it converted 13-of-15 attempts.
Yesufu’s aggression down the stretch enabled him to tie career-highs in free-throw makes (nine) and attempts (10). He crossed the 20-point threshold for the fourth time in his last five games.
Garrett Sturtz finished with 12 points and a season-best 11 rebounds for his second double-double in three outings. Darnell Brodie snared a game-high 12 boards.
The Bulldogs will take time off before setting their sights on Arch Madness. The Bulldogs will face the winner of the UNI/Illinois State opening-round game Friday at 5 p.m. on the MVC TV Network affiliates.
“We’ve got some tired bodies,” said DeVries. “As I told them today, I’m so proud of them. I know how much they’re hurting tonight. We’ve got to make sure to turn the page and get excited to go down to St. Louis and go win some games. That’s got to be our mindset, and I know our guys will approach it that way.”
