Courtesy: Drake Athletics –
DES MOINES, Iowa – A critical three-pointer from junior Trevor Berkeley (Tucker, Ga.) with 16 seconds on the clock pushed the Drake University men’s basketball team past Western Michigan, 71-68, Wednesday evening at the Knapp Center. The back-and-forth contest featured 22 lead changes with neither team leading by more than eight points before Drake emerged victorious.
“I’ve been trying to stay low in my stance and be ready to knock something down,” Berkeley said of this three-pointer. “Rich [Carter] saw that I was open and I took it.”
Berkeley finished the evening with seven points while freshman center Jacob Enevold Jensen (Lunderskov, Denmark) paced Drake (7-3) with 16 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes. Jordan Daniels (Fontana, Calif.) followed up his stellar debut last Saturday with 14 points, including a pair of critical free throws, and seven assists.
Western Michigan (5-5) had three players in double-figures with David Brown’s 23 points leading the way while Connar Tava added 16 points and nine rebounds.
The final four minutes of the game included five lead changes and two ties, but a head’s up play from Seth VanDeest (Bettendorf, Iowa) on a put back off a miss at the free-throw line gave Drake a 1-point, 65-64, lead with 1:07 left.
“We have a little play if we miss a free throw,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “Daddy [Ugbede] screened and Seth was on the other side of the board. That was a huge momentum swing right there.”
That momentum led to Berkeley’s three-pointer on Drake’s next possession and a pair of free throws from Daniels sealed the Bulldogs’ seventh win of the season.
Drake faced a 3-point, 36-33, deficit at halftime but clamped down in the second period to limit WMU to 42.3 percent shooting with just one three-pointer while forcing eight turnovers in the half.
“We’ve talked so much about defense and rebounding and tonight, we talked about it again very calmly at halftime,” Giacoletti said. “At some point you have to fully invest in it and tonight we played as good as we have in the second half defensively.”
With 11:13 left in the game, WMU pushed its lead to the largest of the game at 49-41 thanks to a 9-0 run before an Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) three-pointer followed by defensive stops on five of the next six WMU possessions gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half, 53-52, with 7:45 left to play. Neither team would lead by more than four points until the final whistle.
The Bulldogs aim to build upon Wednesday’s win as they close out their three-game homestand prior to the holiday break when they host Albany on Monday night. Tipoff at the Knapp Center is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
“I hope we can understand what it took tonight and why we are so demanding defensively,” Giacoletti said. “Those are the things [rebounding and defense] that anybody can do and anyone control. Hopefully tonight can be the stepping stone to get us going.”
Post game press conference:
httpv://youtu.be/2aweNCv0u-Y
