Men's Basketball | 12/22/2015 10:45:00 PM
Box Score DES MOINES, Iowa – A 9-0 run by the Drake Bulldogs near the end of the first half proved to be more than the ACU Wildcats could overcome Tuesday night, giving the Bulldogs the separation they needed to pull away for an 87-70 win over ACU in front of 2,701 fans at the Knapp Center on the Drake campus.
The Wildcats' third straight loss drops them to 4-8 on the season, while Drake snaps a four-game losing streak and improves to 5-7 on the year. ACU will be back in action next Wednesday (Dec. 30) when it hosts Hillsdale Baptist at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum, just three days before beginning Southland Conference play on Saturday, Jan. 2, in Conway, Ark., against Central Arkansas.
ACU played well in the first half and was positioned well late in the half, trailing just 34-32 with 2:50 left in the opening half of play. But the Bulldogs – who were unconscious from the field the entire night – hit 3 of their final 5 shots of the half and outscored the Wildcats 9-0 to take a 43-32 halftime lead.
Graham Woodward had a 3-pointer, C.J. Rivers a layup, Woodward a free throw and Kale Abrahamson a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs' points in the run. That 9-0 half-ending run carried over to the start of the second half as the Bulldogs quickly pushed their advantage to 51-36, stretching the run to 17-4 over a span of about six minutes of game time. The Wildcats would not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
"That run to end the first half was the whole ballgame," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "We didn't have an answer for them, and then it carried over to the second half. We had the game right where we wanted it late in the first half and then it just got away from us. A big reason for that was because we didn't play very well defensively."
The Wildcats did manage to cut the Drake lead – which fluctuated between 13 and 17 points for most of the second half – down to 10 points (74-64) with 4:19 to play on a jumper by freshman
Jaylen Franklin, who was sensational with a career-high 24 points. He was relentless driving to the basket as all 19 of his shots (10 makes) were inside the lane.
Once again, however, the Bulldogs pulled away from the Wildcats , outscoring the Wildcats 13-6 over the final 3:35 to take the 17-point win.
Drake's leading scorer, Reed Timmer (averaging 19.5 points per game entering the game) got into early foul trouble and only scored 10 points in 21 minutes. His absence was barely felt, though, as Abrahamson scored 30 points and Graham Woodward added 23 points.
Abrahamson – who had 41 points last month against Western Kentucky – hit 9 of 14 shots from the field, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range, while Woodward was 9 of 13 from the field (4 of 6 from 3-point range). Time after time those two buried key 3-pointers that helped keep the Wildcats from making a significant run. Those two were part of an unconscious offensive effort by the Bulldogs, who shot 62.5 percent from the field (30 of 48), including 55.6 percent from 3-point range (10 of 18).
The Wildcats, meanwhile, shot 44.8 percent from the field (26 of 58), including 43.8 percent from 3-point range (7 of 16). ACU freshman forward
Jaren Lewis was the only other Wildcat to score in double figures, finishing with 15 points and five rebounds in the first start of his career.
