In what many people expected to be a competitive game, Missouri State and Drake delivered just that in the second Missouri Valley Tournament semifinal.
Although there was plenty of maroon in the crowd at the Enterprise Center, the Drake faithful in their blue shirts were easily the largest fanbase of the day. Missouri State was essentially playing a partial road game to try to knock off the Bulldogs for the third time this season.
The first half of the game was fast, competitive and from an individual talent standpoint, impressive. Missouri Valley runner-up for player of the year, Isiaih Mosley finished the first half with 15 points on 6-12 shooting.
Although the performance was sensational, Mosley has been shooting at right around a 50% clip the entire year. The Bears managed to maintain a halftime lead despite Gaige Prim sitting the final 5:55 of the half with foul trouble. Prim had 16 points and 17 boards in the quarterfinal win over Valparaiso.
Towards the end of the half around when Prim went out, Drake began to blitz ball screens and dribble handoffs to make Mosley give up the ball. Darian DeVries was determined to make someone else besides Mosley beat his team. A balanced Drake scoring effort led by nine first half points from Tremell Murphy kept Drake in it and the Bulldogs only trailed by one at the half.
To start the second half, Drake was executing their adjustment on Mosley very well. Tenacious defense coupled with some nice plays from Drake point guard Roman Penn gave the Bulldogs a 43-37 lead going into the first media timeout.
Things looked to be in favor of the Bulldogs, but all of the sudden, foul trouble got in the way. Tremell Murphy and Tucker DeVries both picked up their fourth fouls very close together and that gave Missouri State the opportunity they needed. Gaige Prim got going inside and they started to play team basketball on offense.
The Bears built a 66-61 lead with just over two minutes to go, but Roman Penn willed the Bulldogs back, scoring seven straight points. Penn finished the game with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Donovan Clay’s layup with 0.4 seconds left sent the game to overtime after a great pass from Isiaih Mosley.
In overtime, the game continued to be back and forth and was until the final seconds. Gaige Prim’s layup with nine seconds to go looked like it might send the Bears to the championship, but a blocking foul on Isiaih Mosley and two free throws by Tucker DeVries gave Drake the lead with a second to go.
The hail mary pass for Missouri State connected, but Donovan Clay’s shot did not, giving Drake the win and sending the Bulldogs to their second straight Missouri Valley Championship game. Isiaih Mosley finished with 27 to lead Missouri State and the Bulldogs of Drake were led in scoring by Tucker DeVries who had 23 on the night.
The championship game tomorrow will be a rematch of last year’s game between Loyola and Drake, and yes, there is an NCAA Tournament berth, possibly two, on the line.