Drake’s defense, it turns out, is for real. The Bulldogs just shut down a team that, at least at times, held its own in the best conference in basketball to pick up their first NCAA tournament win in more than 50 years.
No. 11 Drake pulled off a 67-57 upset over No. 6 Missouri at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas on Thursday afternoon. Even though Drake has been in four of the last five NCAA tournaments, it marked the program’s first win in the event since 1971.
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The Bulldogs will now take on either No. 3 Texas Tech or No. 14 UNC Wilmington in the second round.
Drake held Missouri to just 23 points in the first half, which is a season-low for the Tigers, while living up to its title as the best defensive team in the country. The Bulldogs allowed just seven made field goals in the first 20 minutes of the game, and they went on a nearly seven minute stretch where they held Missouri to just two layups while surging ahead to a brief double-digit lead.
Bennett Stirtz, who led the MVC in scoring and was the conference’s Player of the Year, nearly matched Missouri on his own. He had 14 points and shot 5-of-8 from the field in the first 20 minutes. Both he and the entire Missouri team hit two 3-pointers a piece in the first half.
The break didn’t help the Tigers any, either. Drake held them without a field goal for almost eight minutes to open the second half, which allowed the Bulldogs to go on a 13-5 run and break open a 15-point lead. Then just a few minutes later, after the Tigers found a bit of their offense again, Stirtz drilled a truly ridiculous dagger off of a single foot to keep them at bay.
Missouri finally rallied, and pulled off a 10-0 run of its own that largely came from the free throw line, but that was as close as they got. The Bulldogs hung on down the stretch, and responded with a 6-0 burst of their own, to grab the ten-point win.
Caleb Grill led the Tigers with 14 points in the loss, and he shot just 1-of-7 from behind the arc. Tamar Bates was the only other Tigers player to hit double figures with 10. They shot just 4-of-16 from the 3-point line as a team. Missouri, though it had some solid wins early on, largely fell apart to close out the year. The Tigers have now lost six of their last eight games, four of which were against unranked opponents.
Stirtz finished with 21 points to lead Drake while shooting 8-of-11 from the field. Tavion Banks added 15 points off the bench. They shot better than 54% from the field as a team, but struggled at the line while going 12-of-24 from the stripe.
The Bulldogs had the best scoring defense in the country this season, and allowed just 58.4 points per game all year. They play so slow, too, and had more than 100 possessions where the shot clock went below five seconds all season than any other team in the country. The Tigers, on the other hand, were top-10 in scoring with more than 84 points per game while battling through the best conference in the sport.
While Ben McCollum may not be around in Des Moines for much longer — the first-year head coach has been linked to several open jobs, including one not even two hours to the east — and it isn’t the most exciting brand of basketball out there, but he’s certainly making the most of the Bulldogs’ latest trip to the NCAA tournament. We’ll see how far this style can carry them.
