ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Behind a combined 45 points from Joseph Yesufu and Tremell Murphy, the Drake University men’s basketball team defeated Missouri State 71-69 to advance to Sunday’s championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Yesufu finished with 25 points, none bigger than his drive to the basket with two seconds left to win the game and send Drake to the title game for the second time in program history.
Murphy added 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting while Darnell Brodie hauled in 10 boards. Defensively, D.J. Wilkins limited the MVC’s top scorer, Isiaih Mosley to just five points. Gaige Prim had 19 points and 15 rebounds for MSU (17-7).
Drake (25-3) committed a season-low two turnovers in the win and despite Prim’s efforts, outscored the Bears in the paint, 48-36, in a back-and-forth contest that saw the lead swap hands 16 times.
The Bulldogs took the lead with 4:48 left one a Yesufu make to put Drake on top, 64-63, and stretched that advantage to four points, 69-65, with 2:31 left. However, the Bulldogs went through another brief offensive dry spell that allowed MSU’s Demarcus Sharp to tie the game at 69-69 with a floater in the lane with 19 seconds left.
The Bulldogs played for the final shot and Missouri State, which had fouls to give, stopped the clock with six seconds left. Off the sideline out of bounds play, Yesufu got the ball on the right elbow and drove to the goal for the winning basket.
Yesufu’s play sets up a rematch with top-seeded Loyola Sunday at 1 p.m. on CBS in the MVC Championship with the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA on the line. The top two teams in the league split their regular-season series in Des Moines this year.
