DES MOINES — Freshman Tucker DeVries responded to his first collegiate start with a career-best performance in helping the Drake University men’s basketball team turn back St. Thomas 74-64 at the Knapp Center on Sunday afternoon.
St. Thomas, playing its first season in Division I, stayed in the game with its 3-point shooting and it went down to the final minute before the Bulldogs (5-3) pulled away to their 28th straight nonconference victory at home.
DeVries, the son of coach Darian DeVries, scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 34 minutes — all highs in his young career. ShanQuan Hemphill added a season-high 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds and teamed with DeVries to take charge at the end. Garrett Sturtz also scored 17, his best this season and two short of his career high.
DeVries got the start in place of senior point guard Roman Penn, who has a small fracture in his left foot that will keep him out indefinitely. Penn was leading the team in assists and minutes and was averaging 9.7 points.
St. Thomas (4-5), which came in averaging 13 3s a game, knocked down 14 in 30 attempts — the most surrendered by the Bulldogs this season. The Tommies led only once, at 22-20, but their long-range accuracy kept them within striking distance.
Drake struggled from the perimeter, making just 6-of-24, and shot 45.6 percent overall. But the Bulldogs outrebounded the Tommies 35-28, committed just seven turnovers and outscored St. Thomas 34-14 in the paint.
A 16-5 run late in the first half gave Drake a 36-27 lead and the Bulldogs led 37-29 at halftime lead. A D.J. Wilkins 3 in the first minute of the second half made it 40-29, but St. Thomas clawed back and drew to 44-43. Hemphill then scored on a lob pass off an inbounds play to start a 6-0 run that opened some breathing room and the Bulldogs went up by as many as 10 before the Tommies came back again.
They cut the lead to 65-61 with 2:15 left, but then went almost 2 minutes before scoring again and the Bulldogs ran off six straight points to nail it down.
The decisive burst started with DeVries feeding Hemphill for a backboard-shaking two-handed dunk. Hemphill followed with two free throws after rebounding a St. Thomas miss and DeVries made two more after another Drake defensive stop. That made it 71-61 with 28.6 seconds left and the Bulldogs made three more free throws to finish it off — one by Tremell Murphy and two by DeVries, who went 5-for-6 at the line and 7-for-13 from the field.
Wilkins finished with 12 points and two steals, while Murphy had five points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Riley Miller made six of the St. Thomas 3s and led the Tommies with 22 points. They had been a Division III program until making the jump this season.
Drake hits the road for its next game, playing at Omaha on Wednesday, Dec. 8, tipping off at 8 p.m.
