ATLANTA, Ga. – Tremell Murphy delivered the game-tying three-pointer with 13 seconds left, but the Drake (6-4, 1-0) men’s basketball team fell in overtime by a final score of 90-80 against Clemson (6-4, 0-1) at Holiday Hoopsgiving hosted in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Saturday (Dec. 11).
“I thought once again our guys showed tremendous resilience,” head coach Darian DeVries said. “We just couldn’t quite get anything going until we got a spurt at end of regulation with Tremell’s shot to get us into overtime.”
Drake came out firing as D.J. Wilkins connected on a wing tripe for an early 9-4 edge nearly five minutes into the game. Coming off the bench for the first time this season, Darnell Brodie muscled inside to convert a hook shot in the lane with 11:43 left and the Bulldogs trailing 14-13.
Garrett Sturtz made it in a one possession game (24-21) on a corner three off a great find by Ayo Akinwole with 7:56 to play in the opening half.
Tremell Murphy caught a pass at the top of key from Brodie and promptly buried the trifecta as 3:47 remained in the first half. Only a minute later, ShanQuan Hemphill scored a second chance bucket to tie the game at 32 points apiece and cap off an 8-0 Bulldog run.
The Tigers closed the first half on a 7-0 run of their own highlighted by a trey from Al-Amir Dawes for a 39-32 Clemson lead at the halftime break.
Sturtz ducked inside to bring Drake within one possession again behind 42-39 with 16:53 left in the second half. Less than two minutes later, the Tigers built a 10-point advantage (49-39). Tucker DeVries ended the run by drilling a corner 3-pointer on Drake’s next possession.
Almost halfway through the second half (10:53), Brodie put back a miss as the Bulldogs trailed 55-48. Clemson led 69-58 with 5:35 remaining in regulation before Drake’s comeback revved up.
Free throws from ShanQuan Hemphill and Sturtz from 1:37-0:56 trimmed the deficit to only one point at 72-71. A pair of free throws from the Tigers set the stage for Murphy’s game-tying trey from the top of the key.
Clemson grabbed an early lead in overtime that was followed by back-to-back threes by Dawes and Nick Honor to put the Tigers ahead, 85-76 with 1:06 left.
“We had to do a better job keeping them (Clemson) off of the free throw line (8-10) in overtime,” DeVries said. “We weren’t able to get stops in overtime and they hit a couple of big threes.”
PJ Hall scored a game-high 22 points for Clemson and finished 9-for-9 at the charity stripe. David Collins recorded a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Bulldogs return to Des Moines on Thursday (Dec. 16) to play host to Jackson State inside the Knapp Center at 7 p.m.
