Men's Basketball

Arch Madness Game 5: Drake 78, Illinois State 62

#2 Drake (78) vs. #7 Illinois State (62)
 
DRAKE WIN: The Bulldogs, winning their seventh in the last eight outings, improve to 24-8 – the third most victories in single-season history. This marked Drake’s first MVC Tournament win since 2013, snapping a five-game tourney losing streak. Drake moves its MVC Tournament record to 18-39, while advancing to the semifinal round for just the sixth time in school history including first time since winning the 2008 tournament championship. Drake is 3-8 vs. Redbirds in the MVC Tournament. Drake beat Illinois State for the first time in three meetings this season and snaps a three-game losing streak to ISU.
 
ILLINOIS STATE LOSS:  The Redbirds ended this year’s MVC tourney 1-1 and ended their season 17-16. ISU lost for the first time in three tries to Drake this season and Coach Dan Muller is now 139-96 in his seventh ISU season.
 
DRAKE NOTES:  Tonight marks the third time this season Drake held a halftime lead of 20 or more points, including 49-27 over Buena Vista and 43-22 over Southern Ilinois. Tremell Murphy’s 26 points tonight marked his career high and is the tourney high so far this year. Twin brother Anthony Murphy also has a career point high with 16, a career rebound high with 10 and a career steals high with 4. It was his first double-double.  Drake hit .542 (26/48) from the floor, the 13th time the Bulldogs have topped the 50 percent mark shooting. They are 12-1 in those games. Noah Thomas added 13 points, all in the second half. That ended a string of 7 straight single-digit scoring games for him. Drake leading scorer and MVC Defensive Player of the Year Nick McGlynn suffered a right knee injury at the 11:12 mark and sat out the rest of the game.  
 
ILLINOIS STATE NOTES:  Phil Fayne led Illinois State with 18 points, including 14 in the second half. Milik Yarbrough, the leading ISU scorer on the season, didn’t score in the first half for the second game in a row. Of ISU’s top five scorers, four went scoreless in the first half for the second game in a row.
 
First Half:  Drake shot out to a 6-0 lead, Illinois State closed to within 6-5, and then a 10-2 Drake run pushed the ‘Dogs on top 16-7 with 11:12 to play in the half. Drake sent its run to 16-2 and moved in front 22-7 with eight minutes to play before ISU got its next basket of the game and first score in six minutes. The Redbirds’ 17 points marked their lowest first half total of the season and equals the lowest half any ISU team has had in the MVC tourney. The last time ISU had 17 or fewer in a half was 12/6/17 at BYU. Drake is 20-1 when leading at the half and ISU is 3-13 when trailing at the half. ISU shot .250 (7/28) from the floor while Drake sizzled at .520 (13/25) as Tremell Murphy hit 7/10 FGs and scored 14 points. Drake led 37-17 at the half.
 
Second Half:  Drake still had its 20-point lead at 39-19 before ISU went on a 12-2 run that pulled the Redbirds within a dozen at 43-31 at the first media break of the second half. The lead was still a dozen at the next break and Drake moved its edge out to 16 at 54-38 midway in the half.  Drake played the last 7:36 of the game with three starters --- T Murphy, Thomas and Robbins – with four fouls each. Whenever the Redbirds would get within a dozen, Drake would push its margin back to 15 or more. ISU then closed to within nine at 64-55 at 5:05 on a three-point play by Josh Jefferson. Noah Thomas matched that with a three-point play for Drake at the 4:22 mark. The Bulldogs continued to make their free throws down the stretch, hitting their first nine in a row after halftime.