DES MOINES, Iowa - The IUPUI basketball team closed out a two-game tour of Iowa on Wednesday (Nov. 9) with an 80-48 defeat to the hands of Drake University.
Daylan Hamilton led the Jaguars with 12 points off the bench and freshman
Vincent Brady II scored nine points, including a pair of threes.
Tucker DeVries led Drake (1-0) with 22 points and eight boards and Sardaar Calhoun closed with 18 points, including hitting 4-of-6 from three-point range. Drake shot 54 percent from the floor while IUPUI was limited to just 28 percent overall and 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) from three-point range.
"I thought we showed some fight tonight, particularly after such a bad start," head coach
Matt Crenshaw said. "This was a good preparation for us, particularly for some of our younger guys. To have to prepare for a tough opponent on the road after just one day's rest is what you have to do when you get to conference play too.
"This was a good test and showed us where we are and now we have to get back home and get to work."
IUPUI missed its first eight shot attempts before
DJ Jackson finally broke the ice with a runner at the 13:30 mark. By that time, Drake had rattled off 18 straight points to start the game, quelling any thoughts of an upset.
The lead extended to 40-17 by halftime as IUPUI hit just 6-of-27 first half attempts. IUPUI showed some signs of life after halftime as Hamilton sparked an 8-0 run with seven points of his own, that was later capped off by a
John Egbuta free throw. That came on the heels of back-to-back Brady treys, the second of which he converted into a four-point play after being knocked down on the attempt.
IUPUI seemingly addressed the turnover woes from Monday's loss at Iowa State, committing just 14 turnovers that led to seven Drake points. However, made shots were hard to come by against Drake as the Bulldogs also collected eight blocked shots.
Jlynn Counter finished with eight points and
Amhad Jarrard added seven. Jackson had four points and a team-high six boards in 17 minutes off the bench.
The Jaguars will continue a stretch of three straight road games to start the season when they take on Chicago State on Monday night (Nov. 14) at 7:00 p.m. Central.
