Everything went smoothly for the Drake men’s basketball team in their home matchup against Southern Illinois University on Saturday, Feb. 11. They won the tip-off, got the first points of the game and won 82-59, remaining tied for first place in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Drake (21-6, 12-4) extended their win streak to seven games, the longest this season, and broke Southern Illinois’ (19-8, 11-5) two-game win streak. With four games remaining in the season, Drake is tied with Bradley University for first place.
“I thought our guys were really engaged in practice and came out with a great focus on both ends of the floor,” said coach Darian DeVries in the post-game press conference. “They did a really good job of setting the tone from the start of the game and then we were able to get it going a little bit, and then got some shots, got feeling good and got off to a great start.”
The Bulldogs started off hot with graduate senior Roman Penn scoring the game’s first points with a layup. Penn went on to score nine of Drake’s first 14 points. Despite numerous attempts, the Salukis were scoreless for the first 5 ½ minutes of the game; their first points came off of two free throws by Xavier Johnson.
Within the first 10 minutes of the game, the Bulldogs were up 26-7. They continued scoring and extended the lead, despite the Salukis playing better, leading 45-22 at the end of the first half. Drake shot 60% from the field going 18-for-30, 7-for-9 from beyond the arc and 100% from the free throw line. In comparison, Southern Illinois shot 30% from the field, going 6-for-20, shooting 3-for-11 from the 3-point line and 63% from the free throw line.
Southern Illinois picked it up in the second half and the Salukis came out playing better with more energy. The pace of the game picked up and Drake lost the momentum, starting the half going almost four minutes without scoring a point.
In the end, Drake prevailed, finishing the game shooting 53.6% from the field going 15-for-28, 36.4% from the 3-point line and 100% from the free throw line. Southern Illinois finished the game shooting 36.5% from the field, 39.1% from the 3-point range and 63.2% from the free throw line.
This rematch was a revenge game for Drake, as they struggled in their last matchup against Southern Illinois on Jan. 4, losing 53-49. Penn went 1-for-15 from the field during that game. In last Saturday’s win, Penn went 10-for-15 and led the team with 21 points. With a team-high of 34 minutes played, Penn also had eight assists, five rebounds, a steal and one turnover.
“I think Roman’s just playing with extreme confidence right now and you can feel the urgency in his voice in practices, in the locker room, in the huddles,” Darian DeVries said. “He’s playing at a really high level right now and it’s fun to watch him.”
Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois’ leading scorer, was held to only five points, matching a season low and shooting 1-of-8 in 32 minutes played. Domask came into Saturday’s match averaging 17.1 points per game. The job of defending him was mainly left to graduate student Garrett Sturtz, who ended the game with nine points, five rebounds, an assist, a steal and most importantly, no fouls.
“Garrett was terrific and some other guys as well, but Garrett got the primary responsibility on [Domask],” Darian DeVries said.
DeVries noted that in the first half, the team double-teamed Domask to get the ball out of his hands. Adjustments were made in the second half after the Salukis adjusted themselves, so they brought more single coverage to limit his looks.
“I had a lot of support behind me. We did a lot of doubles. We mixed up the defenses a little bit,” Sturtz said. “Sardaar [Calhoun] did a really good job on him. [Domask] is a tremendous player. We knew that. We’ve known that for many years now. We just tried to limit his touches and just give different looks.”
Sophomore star Tucker DeVries had a quiet first half playing only 5 ½ minutes and scoring three points. In the second half, he had more success, with 12 additional points ending the day going 5-for-7 from the field, three rebounds, three assists and one steal.
“I thought today as a group, we did a great job of just feeding off each other, executing the game plan tremendously,” Tucker DeVries said. We knew Southern is a good team. I mean, there’s a reason they’re at the top and I think we just really handled business today.
His 15 points against Southern Illinois were enough for him to eclipse 1,000 career points, now at 1,008, in less than two seasons and 62 career games.
“I know I can speak for him when I say he only cares about winning and that’s it,” Darian DeVries said.
DeVries is the fourth active player on the team to reach this achievement, along with Penn, D.J. Wilkins and Sturtz.
“I think it goes back to just two things. The work I put in and all the guys behind me that have sent me confidence from freshman year coming in, and they really gave me a lot of confidence in just joining in, being able to be myself out there and coming into this year they’ve done the same thing,” Tucker DeVries said. “I think, as a team, we just play so well off each other and that’s helped me a lot. I can’t thank them enough for everything that I’ve been able to accomplish. This is just a great group. Nobody I’d rather do it with than this group that I have by me.”
Concerns were raised near the end of the game when DeVries came down awkwardly after a jump shot off his backfoot while in the paint and landed on his right elbow. He came back up in visible pain whilst grabbing his elbow, an elbow that landed him in the emergency room with an infection a few weeks ago. With around three minutes left in the game, DeVries left for the locker room and came back to the bench with ice on it.
The game, played at the Knapp Center with a stadium capacity of 6,424 people, was packed with students, family and friends. Attendance was recorded at 4,839 people.
“Our past couple of games our crowd has been amazing and we want to thank all the fans for coming out, the students for coming out,” Sturtz said. “It’s a real confidence boost when you can look out and see how much support we have and we’re really grateful for that.”
The Bulldogs will head to Cedar Falls to take on rivals University of Northern Iowa on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m.
