By Mark Bennett
Royce Waltman didn't spend much of Sunday's
game debating with the referees.
Indeed, his Indiana State Sycamores shot only
11 free throws all afternoon in the Missouri Valley Conference
college basketball opener at Drake, making seven. And the host
Bulldogs made themselves at home at the stripe, sinking 20 of
29 attempts. ISU was whistled for a season-high 23 personal fouls.
And, thus, the Bulldogs won 85-71. But Drake
earned its foul shots, Waltman said.
"They beat us off the dribble, and we
fouled them," he explained.
And that caught the Sycamores (2-5 overall,
0-1 in the MVC) by surprise. Waltman used a small four-guard
starting lineup with Kelyn Block, Marcus Howard, Matt Broermann
and Matt Berry surrounding Djibril Kante at center, intending
to challenge Drake's strong 3-point shooters with tight backcourt
defense. Instead, the Bulldogs (4-2, 1-0) bolted past their ISU
defenders, hitting layups or drawing fouls or both. And Drake
still hit 11 3-pointers.
"They're good perimeter shooters. Really,
we thought we could guard them off the dribble, if we took away
their 3-point shots," Waltman said. "And it's really
disappointing that we couldn't."
Not only did the Bulldogs coax fouls from
ISU, they turned the ball over just seven times. "They played
very well, and were better handling the basketball and driving
off the dribble than I thought they would be."
The Bulldogs flashed those skills immediately
Sunday.
After Block sank a 3-pointer to open the game,
Drake made its first five field goals. In less than four minutes,
the Bulldogs were up 14-5. By contrast, the Sycamores missed
their next five shots after Block's basket, and the smallest
Drake player - 5-foot-11 guard David Newman - grabbed all five
rebounds.
"Right from the get-go, they came out
and jumped on us and had us a little but unsure," Block
said of the Bulldogs. "And they played with confidence throughout
the game."
"We came out with intensity [and] played
good defense," said Bulldog sophomore Luke McDonald.
Those qualities never really faded, even as
the Sycamores were having the most prolific 3-point shooting
day by a MVC team this season, hitting 12 of 26 shots outside
the arc. By halftime, Drake led 47-32. And in the second half,
when Block began to hit more shots, the Bulldogs answered, often
with free throws.
Block was a Preseason All-MVC first-team choice,
and left little doubt about that honor with his second-half performance.
The 6-2, 200-pound guard scored 18 of his season- and game-high
23 points after halftime. As those final 20 minutes began, Block
scored nine points in an 11-5 Sycamore run that cut Drake's lead
to 52-43.
Then freshman reserve point guard Lamar Grimes'
fourth foul sent McDonald to the free throw line. An 88-percent
free throw shooter and a Preseason All-MVC first-teamer like
Block, McDonald sank both. Seconds later, Grimes' backup, Batiste
Haywood - seeing his first action since ISU's Nov. 25 loss at
Butler - fouled Drake's Lonnie Randolph. Randolph hit his two
foul shots also. The Sycamores never came closer than 11 points
again.
"That's great," junior forward Andry
Sola said of Drake's lopsided edge at the foul line. "There's
nothing easier than free throws, and we're a good free throw
shooting team."
Sola returned from a sore ankle to lead the
Bulldogs with a season-high 21 points. Teammate Greg Danielson
added 16 points, while J.J. Sola (no relation) scored 14. McDonald
was limited to a season-low 13 points by Howard's defense.
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| AP/Charlie
Neibergall |
| Ahead of the pack: Drake's
Andry Sola (right) chases down a loose ball in front of Indiana
State's Batiste Haywood (left) and Matt Berry (center) Sunday
during the second half of the Sycamores' 85-71 loss. |
In fact, Drake Coach Kurt Kanaskie was impressed
with ISU's defense, even though the Sycamores yielded a season-high
85 points. "We never expected to score 85 points against
Indiana State, because we respect their defense and the way they
play," Kanaskie said.
His own team's defense limited ISU's double-figure
scoring to Block's 23 points and 14 more by Howard. Kante and
fellow senior post player Terence Avery shared team-high rebounding
honors with eight each, but the Bulldogs outrebounded ISU as
a team 41-33. They also limited Kante and Avery to seven points
each and outscored ISU 42-20 in shots from the paint.
Drake will use Sunday's victory as momentum,
going into emotional in-state games at Iowa on Wednesday and
at home against Iowa State on Saturday. "This is what college
basketball is about," Andry Sola said.
As for the Sycamores, they'll rest a week
before continuing a three-game road swing at Creighton next Sunday
and at Wyoming on Dec. 19. The Sycamores could use the same kind
of clean, efficient performance the Bulldogs delivered against
them. And that's a tall task, Waltman said.
"I don't mean to sound so pessimistic,
but it's not like one thing. We've got a lot of improvement to
do," he said. "[The Bulldogs] didn't have many bad
possessions today. I saw them take maybe one bad shot. They threw
the ball away hurried one time. That's about it. And we had too
many of those possessions."
Game notes -
Haywood, a walk-on junior-college transfer from Hammond, scored
his first points of the season, finishing with five. ... Howard
had five assists and four turnovers in 35 minutes of action Sunday,
after a seven-assist-one-turnover performance against Murray
State last week. ... Grimes fouled out in just nine minutes on
the court, finishing with three points and two rebounds.
Valley recap
- Northern Iowa continued its impressive start on Saturday, the
opening night for MVC basketball. Led by Robbie Sieverding's
23 points and David Gruber's double-double (17 points and 10
rebounds), the Panthers (6-1, 1-0) beat Bradley 67-61, ending
the Braves' 19-game conference home-court winning streak. Overall,
Bradley (2-4, 0-1) has lost three consecutive games at Peoria
this season, its longest home-court losing streak since 1993.
In non-conference games Saturday, Creighton
(3-2) was stung by a 61-52 loss to Brigham Young. Preseason All-MVC
pick Kyle Korver missed his first six shots and was held to a
season-low four points. At Springfield, Mo., host Southwest Missouri
State (3-4) lost the championship of its Pizza Hut Classic 72-71
in overtime to Texas-San Antonio. And despite 19 points in 20
minutes of playing time by Wichita State freshman Randy Burns,
the Shockers (4-4) lost 82-76 to visiting Tulsa before 10,412
fans in the Roundhouse.
Also Saturday, Evansville (2-5) got crushed
101-65 at Butler (7-0), Southern Illinois (7-1) rallied to beat
George Mason 76-66, and Illinois State edged Samford 65-54 behind
Vince Greene's 14 points.
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