ST. LOUIS, Mo. ? Indiana State picked up a hard-fought over Wichita State on Thursday night to advance to Friday's quarterfinal round of the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, but their reward was having to face the No. 1 seeded Drake Bulldogs in the first of four games on the day. The Sycamores (15-16, 8-10 MVC) struggled from the field and the Bulldogs (26-4, 15-3 MVC) forced 13 turnovers and out-rebounded ISU by a margin of 42-34 to pick up a 68-46 win, eliminating ISU from the tournament.
Drake jumped out to an early 7-0 and then extended the lead to 10-2 on a three-pointer by Josh Young, before a layup by Harry Marshall and a jumper by Isiah Martin cut the lead to 10-6 at the 15:00 minute mark. Drake later led by a score of 15-10 after a layup by Adam Emmenecker, but a jumper by Gabe Moore cut the lead to three with 11:25 left to play. The Bulldogs then went on a 7-0 run to widen their lead to 22-12, before a jumper by Todd McCoy cut the lead to eight. After a free throw from Marshall, Martin converted on a layup and Moore connected from 3-point range to cut the lead to 22-20 with 6:11 left, giving the team some much-needed momentum.
After Drake scored the next seven points to go up 29-20, Marshall hit two free throws to cut the lead to seven before McCoy converted a three-point play after being fouled by Drake's Jonathan Cox to cut the lead to 29-24. Drake held for the last shot and Emmenecker drained a jumper with just one second remaining to give the Bulldogs a 31-25 advantage at halftime.
The Bulldogs opened the half with an 11-2 run that took 4:47 off the clock to take a 42-27 lead, after a free throw by Cox. Aaron Carter ended the scoring drought quickly after that with his first three-pointer of the game to cut the lead to 42-30 with 14:42 left in the game. Drake then widened that advantage to 18 points at 48-30 after a free throw by Leonard Houston, before Marico Stinson connected from 3-point to cut the lead to 48-33.
ISU continued to chip away at the lead and eventually cut it to 50-38 after Moore converted a three-point play at the 9:43 mark. Drake answered by going on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 59-38 after a free throw by Josh Young with 4:30 left in the game. The Bulldogs held onto the big advantage and led by as much as 25 points at the 2:10 mark, but ISU scored the last points of the game on a three-pointer by Carter to bring the score to its final at 68-46.
The Sycamores finished the season with a 15-16 overall record, the most wins for the team since the 2000-01 season. Moore led the way for ISU in the game with 12 points to finish with 1,223 points in his four-year career with the Sycamores, which ranks him 16th on the school's all-time scoring list. He also finished his career with 444 assists, which ranks fifth all-time and with 203 steals, which puts him in third all-time. Marshall and Carter each finished the game with eight points each for ISU, while McCoy added seven points and four rebounds in his final game in an ISU uniform.
