ST LOUIS ? No. 9 seed Indiana State held a 33-20 lead at halftime and seemed to be in the driver's seat against No. 8 Drake in opening round of the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.  However, a second half surge by the Bulldogs (17-15) cut the lead to just one point but the Sycamores (11-20) held on for a 62-55 win to advance to Friday's quarterfinal round.

Drake jumped ahead 8-2 at the 16:14 mark of the first half after a jumper by Jonathan Cox.  Rashad Reed  got ISU back into the scoring column with a three-pointer to move the Sycamores back to within three points at the 16:00 mark, before two free throws by Josh Young made the score 10-5 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Aaron Carter and Josh Crawford came off the bench and made an immediate impact with a three-pointer from Carter and two jump shots from Crawford to get ISU's first lead of the night at 12-10 with 13:45 left in the first half.  Jacob Baryenbruch stopped the ISU run with a three pointer to put the Bulldogs up by three at 15-12.  Drake then took the lead 18-15 on a layup by Alex White with 8:57 remaining in the first half.

From there, it was all ISU as the Sycamores went on an 18-2 run to close out the half.  Harry Marshall got the scoring started with a jumper and Jay Tunnell gave the Sycamores a 20-18 lead with 7:25 remaining in the half.  Tunnell then added two free throws before Cox answered with a bucket to cut the lead to 22-20.  Crawford then nailed a three pointer to put ISU up five and Reed followed with a trey of his own to give ISU an eight point lead.  Carl Richard's layup put the Sycamores up by 10 points and a long three pointer by Jordan Printy with 37 seconds left gave ISU a 33-20 lead at the half.

The 20 points scored by Drake were the fewest in the first half by any ISU opponent this season.  At halftime Reed led the Sycamores with eight points, while Crawford contributed seven points off the bench.  Carl Richard also grabbed six rebounds for the Sycamores.

Coming out of the break, ISU continued its impressive run with a short jumper by Printy and a jumper by Tunnell to take a 37-20 lead.  After a basket by Craig Stanley cut into the ISU lead, Tunnell answered with another jumper to put the Sycamores back up by 17 points.  After a free throw from Drake's Josh Young, Printy hit a jumper and Tunnell nailed a three to give ISU its largest lead of the game at 44-23 with 15:38 remaining.

Drake would not stop fighting, though, and went on a 19-3 run helped by several ISU miscues, to bring the Bulldogs to within five points at 47-42 with 6:39 left in the second half.  After drawing a charge, Tunnell made a big play to tip in a missed shot attempt from Marshall to widen the gap back to seven at 49-42 with 6:00 left in the game. 

Drake would then fight back and cut the lead five at 52-47 with 2:12 remaining and Tunnell picked up his fifth foul of the game quickly after with 2:09 remaining to put the Sycamores down one player.  The Bulldogs then cut the lead to one at 52-51 after a layup by Cox with 1:32 left in the game.

Reed would then be fouled on consecutive possessions and made all four of his free-throws.  The Sycamores put up a defensive stand and after getting the ball down court on some nifty passing, Marshall was fouled and drained both of his free-throw attempts to bring the Sycamore lead back to seven points at 58-51 with less than a minute left in the ball game. 

Drake cut the lead to five points on a layup with 52 seconds remaining, but Aaron Carter hit two free throws to give ISU a seven-point lead with 22 seconds left and the game would go the way of the Sycamores 62-55.  Tunnell led the way for the Sycamores with 18 points, 12 of which were scored in the second half, and pulled down seven rebounds.  Reed poured in 15 points, going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe and Marshall contributed six points and five assists. 

The victory advanced the Sycamores into Friday's quarterfinal round, where they will face off against the No. 1 seed Northern Iowa at 1:05 p.m. EST.  The game will be televised live on Fox Sports Midwest and will the be the first of four games on Friday at the Scottrade Center.