Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Devonte Brown posted a career-high 27 points and the Sycamores withstood a furious second half rally and held on for a 79-69 road victory over Drake inside the Knapp Center.
The Sycamores improved to 8-7, 2-1 MVC with their first Valley road victory of the campaign while Drake fell to 5-10, 0-3 MVC. Indiana State has won four of the last five meetings with the Bulldogs, including two of the last three in Des Moines. The Sycamores begin conference play with at least a 2-1 record in the Valley for the fourth consecutive season.
Brown scored 27 points and paced the team with eight rebounds. Brenton Scott added 14 while Van Scyoc scored 13 and Khristian Smith tallied 10. Smith added five assists and three steals in the winning effort. 79 points is a new season best for the Sycamore offense.
The Sycamores hit 44.3 percent of their shots from the field and connected on eight 3-pointers. Indiana State forced 14 turnovers and turned them into 19 points while only turning the ball over six times themselves on offense.
Drake scored first in the contest on a free throw but then the Sycamores scored the next six in a row including a Matt Van Scyoc 3-pointer and a Khristian Smith fastbreak lay-up for the early 6-1 lead and forced the Bulldogs to burn a timeout. Jumpers from Smith and Brenton Scott staked the Sycamores to a 12-7 advantage at the 16:29 mark.
The Bulldogs got a jumper by Kyle Abrahamson which drew them within 12-9, but nine points in a row by Devonte Brown netted the Sycamores a 9-0 run and a 21-9 with 12:36 on the clock. Brown hit a pair of jumpers and then a 3-pointer which forced Drake to burn their second timeout. After the break, Brown got a steal and fast break score to complete the run.
A 7-0 Sycamore run was kickstarted by a Van Scyoc 3-pointer and continued with four more from Brown for a 28-14 cushion with 8:04 on the clock. Drake ended the run with a lay-up but Scott countered with a trifecta and the lead ballooned to 15. A Brown lay-up down the middle of the lane gave him 16 for the half and then a Scott free throw at the 5:31 mark made it 37-19 Sycamores. Drake got back within 14, but Van Scyoc drilled another 3-pointer as the clock ticked under the three minute mark to stretch the lead ou to 40-23. Laquarious Paige answered a Reed Timmer 3-pointer with a trifecta of his own at the 2:04 mark and Brown finished off a sparkling first half with a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the Sycamores went into the locker room with their biggest lead -- 46-26. Brown scored 19 points in the opening stanza.
Van Sycoc scored a second-chance lay-up less than one minute into the second half to stretch the lead out to 48-26. Drake used a 5-0 run to claw back into the contest, but charity tosses from Van Scyoc and Brown helped maintain the advantage through the first media timeout. Drake began to whittle away at the Sycamore advantage as an Everett Clemons lay-up with 13:17 on the clock pushed Indiana State ahead 56-41. But Drake scored eleven in a row to get themselves within 56-52 with 10:43 remaining, capped by a Abrahamson 3-pointer.
A jumper from Scott stopped the bleeding and stretch the lead back out to six. After Timmer hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe, Clemons made a nice second-chance lay-up at the 9:21 mark to stretch the cushion out to 60-53. The Bulldogs missed the front end of a one-and-one and Khristian Smith hit a floater in the paint for the 62-53 lead with just over eight to go. Timmer converted a 3-pointer but Murphy answered down low and the Sycamores led 64-56 with 8:05 remaining.
A jumper inside by Brown with 5:28 remaining staked the Sycamores to a 68-57 lead but Drake continued to battle back and used a 6-0 run to make it a five-point contest at the 4:28 mark. Brown hit a pair of charity tosses with 3:24 remaining to stretch the lead out to 70-63. After an Emondre Rickman steal, Smith hit another in the lane floater at the 2:40 mark to push the Sycamore lead out to 72-63.
Scott converted a lay-up as the clock ticked under two minutes and then came back after a steal with a two free throws and the Sycamores led 77-67. Drake scored to get it within eight, but a Khristian Smith steal followed by two charity tosses with under a minute remaining pushed the lead out to 79-69.
Drake placed five scorers in double figures led by Jacob Enevold who scored 14 points. The Bulldogs rebounded from a 33 percent shooting effort in the first half to hit 14-of-28 attempts after the break.
Indiana State returns to action on Saturday, January 9 as they host Illinois State on Alumni Day. The game tips at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
