Men's Basketball Falls at Drake, 66-53

DES MOINES, Iowa (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team dropped a road contest, 66-53, at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake University Thursday, Dec. 8. Despite shooting .625 from the three-point line in the first half, the Eagles didn't have enough fire-power to take down the Bulldogs.

Darrell Lampley (Linden, N.J.-Linden-Lakeland C.C.) paced the Eastern Michigan offense with 20 points, while Derek Thompson (Detroit, Mich.-Melvindale-Southeast Missouri State) notched a season-high 18 points of his own, going 6-of-10 from three-point land. Jamell Harris (Euclid, Ohio-Euclid) led EMU on the glass as he snatched nine rebounds for the Eagles. Eastern shot .400 percent from the floor, going 18-for-45 and .500 from the three-point line.

Drake had three men in double-figures with Ben Simons leading the way with 16 points. Jeremy Jeffers and Jordan Clarke added 11 and 13, respectively. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded by Eastern 30-31 en route to the 66-53 win. They also shot .449 from the floor in the game, going 22-for-49.

Drake opened up the scoring by jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. It took Eastern nearly four minutes to pick up points when Lampley hit an 18-foot jumper at the 16:24 mark to spark a nine-point Eagles' run, making it 9-2 in favor of the Green and White. Lampley went three-for-three with seven points during that run.

Drake responded by grabbing the next five points, to tie the game up at nine points apiece, however, Thompson hopped off the bench to hit a trio of three-point buckets putting EMU up 18-11.Thompson continued his hot-shooting ways by hitting another trey to put EMU up 23-17 with just over two minutes remaining in the half. After trading buckets through the end of the half, the Eagles went into the locker room leading 27-24.

Lampley and Thompson led the scoring in the opening half with 11 and 12 points, respectively. Harris was a force on the board grabbing five rebounds in the first 20 minutes of play. As a team, the Eagles shot .478 from the field going 11-of-23 and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. Eastern was able to use five fast break points to their advantage, while Drake did not have any points off of fast breaks in the opening half. The Bulldogs went 10-for-27 from the field; good for .370 percent.

Drake opened the second half with an eight-point run taking a 32-27 lead in the first three minutes of play. Anthony Strickland (Ypsilanti, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud-Adrian) opened up the scoring for Eastern with a drive to the lane, picking up the Eagles first bucket of the half at the 16:04 mark. The Eagles were unable to hit another shot until Thompson knocked down another one from beyond the arc making it 35-32 with the Bulldogs on top. Drake then went on a 7-3 run to take a 42-35 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the game.

J.R. Sims (Fort Wayne, Ind.-Snider) took advantage of a pair of free-throws to make it a five-point game, 42-37 with just over eight minutes left. Another Thompson three-ball brought the Eagles to within four, 47-43 with just over four minutes left in the game, leading Eastern and Drake to trade buckets until the Bulldogs took an 11 point lead with two minutes left. The home team was able to extend their lead to 13 on last minute free-throws and took the game 66-53.

The Eagles continue their nine game road swing with a trip to West Lafayette, Ind. to take on Big Ten Conference opponent, the Purdue University. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. at Mackey Arena as the Boilermakers (8-2) and Eagles square off for the third time in ever.

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Team Stats

Darrell Lampley

Derek Thompson

Matt Balkema

Anthony Strickland

Eastern Michigan Athletics