Drake 74, Creighton 62!

What a game! It sure seemed like the same old story as Creighton hit their first four shots en route to an 11-2 lead at the start of the game. But Drake played scrappy, tough, and kept fighting -- pulling the game back to an even keel within the first half. They then had one of their best stretches of the season as they outscored Creighton 45-27 in the second half to cruise to a 74-62 victory.

Four Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by Josh Young and Craig Stanley, who both had 16. Stanley, in fact, dropped a monster 16/12/6 (points, boards, assists) game, by far his best of the year. Speaking of best games of the year, how about 15 points on 7/10 shooting from John Michael Hall? Finally Bucky had a smooth 14/13 double double. Altogether, pretty much everybody brought their A game.

dutl bits about Saturday's game:

• Saturday the first time we have had four guys in double figures since we beat Wichita State back on the 11th. I'm beating a dead horse, but we're so much better when we don't have to lean on Josh Young and we can have multiple options.
• We had 68 total possessions in the game (according to Ken Pomeroy). We haven't even been close to that since Wichita State (64 in that game) and haven't topped it since we had 74 @ Evansville on 12/28. I don't know if we're necessarily a team that is built to run others into the ground -- but it was great to see Stanley, Parker, and Young operate in transition and use their speed to get easy baskets. I'm kind of surprised that we haven't operated in transition as much given this fact, and given the fact that our bigs (esp. Bucky) can really run the floor. Sure seems like an advantage that we should be using to our favor.
• We're ninth in the Valley in rebounding per game (34 total). That sure changed with a whopping 48 rebounds (forty-freaking-eight!) against Creighton, and outrebounding the Jays by 13. While part of that had to do with their poor shooting in the 2nd half -- there's no denying it was an excellent effort and led to both easy transition baskets and just better offensive sets in general.

Will it continue against Evansville? Who knows, but it sure is yet another big game for where we're going. One thing I do know is that theres a great chance we're going to get a huge effort from them after blowing a large lead late today against Wichita State. Doubt they'll be very happy on Wednesday when they come to Knapp.

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UPDATE: I am watching the UNI/MoSt game on ESPNU, and I'll tell you that last weekend, while more of an ass-beating then it should have been, was no fluke. This UNI team has really stepped it up and is playing like a tournament team. It's a bold claim, but it's true. They are deep and they have plenty of shooters, and two excellent inside threats with Koch and Eglseder. Add in what Johnny Moran has done and this team is tough.

With their poor non-conference start and the way they play, I don't think they even have a MVC player of the year on this squad. But they just have so many pieces they are so tough. It's going to be a tough trip next time we go to Cedar Falls...