Drake men's basketball bounces back with MVC win over Murray State, Steve Prohm

The Drake men’s basketball team picked up a much-needed conference win on Saturday, beating Murray State 82-64 at the Knapp Center.

The Bulldogs took the lead first off a layup from Darnell Brodie, but the Racers were quick to respond. Murray State scored six unanswered points before Brodie added another layup. He scored the first six points for the Bulldogs before Sardaar Calhoun added a 3-pointer.

Murray State surged ahead but the Racers never held more than a 4-point lead. Drake, on the other hand, scored 15 unanswered points and held its opponent scoreless for more than six minutes. But the Bulldogs couldn’t hold off the Racers forever, and Murray State ended the scoring drought at the 8:21 mark.

Drake outscored the Racers 20-15 through the remainder of the first half. The Bulldogs went to the locker room with the 44-29 advantage.

Despite Murray State's best attempts, the lead that Drake built was too much for the Racers to come back from in the second half.

D.J. Wilkins went 5-for-8 from 3-point range and led Drake with 17 points. Brodie and Calhoun each scored 16 points, and Garrett Sturtz had a team-high 11 rebounds.

"The balance was great," coach Darian DeVries said postgame. "I thought our ball movement was great tonight, that led to better quality shots. ... Add bench production on top of that too, it's so important for us."

Much-needed bounce back for the Bulldogs

Drake had a 2-3 conference record ahead of Saturday’s game, which is the first time the Bulldogs have started with that record in the Missouri Valley Conference since the 2018-19 season. Drake went on to win the regular-season title that year.

But the Bulldogs had a problem putting all the pieces together and finishing games as of late. In four of Drake’s five losses, the Bulldogs held the lead with less than two minutes to play.

So, even with Drake holding a double-digit lead for most of the game, a win wasn’t guaranteed.

The Bulldogs managed to stay on top and pull out the win, thanks to double-digit performances from five different players. Drake's defense also played a strong part in the win, as the Bulldogs and Racers shot 48% and 45% from the field, respectively.

Was it a perfect game? Not quite. Drake turned over the ball 12 times to Murray State's 10 and did have moments when the Bulldogs of recent games came out. But it was a marked improvement from the last few Drake contests.

"It was pretty good just to be able to come out here ... put a two-half game together," Wilkins said. "Everybody contributed by playing hard."

Record night for Roman Penn

Penn, a graduate guard for the Bulldogs, entered the season already in possession of Drake's all-time assists record (432).

Against Murray State, Penn pushed the envelope even further. With 8:15 left in the second half, he dished the ball to Garrett Sturtz, who hit a 3-pointer. It was Penn's third assist of the game and No. 500 in his career. The next closest Bulldog to Penn is Glenn Martin, who finished his career with 384.

"It's such a blessing," Penn said. "D.J. being a lot of those assists and a lot of guys in that locker room just being a part of that whole journey from the beginning.

"I'm grateful for having such a great team that puts the ball in my hands and lets me make plays, lets me play my game. It's a great accomplishment for me and my family and everybody who helped me get here."

Penn recorded four helpers against Murray State, and he added four points, three rebounds and a block.

Steve Prohm makes his return to Iowa

Former Iowa State men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm was back in Iowa, just on a different sideline. He is the coach of Murray State and has led the Racers to a 9-7 overall record (4-2 MVC).

It didn’t end as Prohm had hoped, with his team walking away with its first loss since December.

The Racers struggled on the defensive end. The Racers allowed Drake to pull down 11 offensive rebounds, compared to Murray State's two, and struggled to come up with any answer for the Bulldogs' ability to spread out the scoring.

"I just thought they were the more physical, tougher team," Prohm said postgame. "I knew we would have to play really, really well. I thought (Drake) physically just man-handled us. We got out-rebounded. They were just tougher than us today, bottom line."

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Drake men's basketball bounces back with MVC win over Murray State