When a basketball team gets into a dog fight with a team that’s a heavy underdog, which team comes out on top? In this dog-eat-dog world, it’s the team that has more dog in them, of course. Friday night at the Enterprise Center, the Bulldogs of Drake proved once and for all that they were the top dog, defeating the Murray State Racers 74 to 62.
Drake University’s official bulldog, Griff II, looked on from his courtside lawn chair as the second-seeded Bulldogs raced past the seventh-seeded Racers, who were playing in their second ever Missouri Valley Conference tournament game. The game was far from pretty, with both sides amassing fouls galore. Drake’s graduate guard Garrett Sturtz recorded a flagrant 1 foul early in the second half, and tempers from both sides threatened to boil over, but ultimately the game came to pass with no major altercations.
Tucker DeVries led the way for Drake, scoring 27 points on 9 for 14 shooting. DeVries, the son of head coach Darin, was named Missouri Valley Conference Player Of The Year earlier in the week, and made a strong case to be included on the list of all-MVC Tournament honors at the end of the week. Graduate guard Roman Penn recorded a double-double, scoring 16 points and dishing out 10 assists for the Bulldogs. Both were named to the all-Tournament team last season.
Drake redshirt freshman Conor Enright went down hard after a layup attempt early in the second half, and he had to be helped by trainers to the locker room with a potential leg injury. He was unavailable for the remainder of the game for the Bulldogs, and in the postgame press conference head coach Darian DeVries said that the team had not yet received an update on his health.
Murray State hung around well into the second half, but as the game progressed, it simply didn’t have the offensive prowess to compete with the Bulldogs. Orlando, Florida native Rob Perry led the way for Murray State with 22 points, but only Jabari Smith managed to make it to the double-digit mark in points for the Racers, and their contributions simply weren’t enough to keep the game competitive.
Murray State finished its first season in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 17-15 record, 11-10 in conference play. The Racers lost to Drake in all three matchups the teams had this season, by 18, 24 and 12 points, respectively.
With their win, the Drake Bulldogs advance to the conference semifinals. They will face the winners of tonight’s nightcap, a matchup of the No. 3 seed Southern Illinois Salukis and the Missouri State Bears, which is slated to tip off at 8:30. Tomorrow’s semifinal will begin at 5 p.m., and the game can be viewed on CBS Sports Network.