No. 11 seed Drake holds on after blowing big lead and beats Missouri 67-57 in March Madness opener

Bennett Stirtz scored 21 points and No. 11 seed Drake, a team relying heavily on Division II transfers, held on after blowing most of a 15-point lead to beat sixth-seeded Missouri 67-57 on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tavion Banks added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs (31-3), who along with first-year coach Ben McCollum advanced to a second-round West Region matchup with third-seeded Texas Tech on Saturday.

“We just fought. That’s kind of what we have to do, is just continue to grind and compete,” said McCollum, who won four D-II national titles at Northwest Missouri State before taking the Drake job last April. “We have guys that want to do that.”

Missouri (22-12) grinded, too, reducing that 15-point deficit to one down the stretch. But the Tigers had expended too much energy, and Drake scored the next six points to take back control and put the game away.

Caleb Grill finished with 14 points to lead the Tigers. Tamar Bates had 10 before fouling out.

“It’s a memorable season for our guys, a great accomplishment to say the least, but it was cut short. There’s no doubt about it,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “It’s loser goes home, and we didn’t do enough to come away with a win.”

As expected, the game was a stylistic clash: Drake and its nation-leading scoring defense trying to force a rock fight, and Missouri with its top-10 scoring offense trying to push the tempo whenever it had the chance.

There were very few until the second half.

The Bulldogs made every shot a chore, and at the other end, they patiently probed for openings. Usually it was Stirtz — one of the Northwest Missouri State quartet who followed McCollum to Drake — who was knocking down a 3 or driving to the rim.

The Missouri Valley champs forged a 30-23 halftime lead. And it appeared as if the small school from Des Moines, Iowa — with an enrollment of 4,774 — would be able to put the game away, extending the advantage to 43-28 with 12:40 to go.

That’s when Missouri began to press in an attempt to push the pace, and the Bulldogs struggled to deal with it. At one point, the Tigers ripped off 10 consecutive points, closing within 52-51 on Mark Mitchell’s free throw with 4:28 remaining.

That was the closest Missouri would get down the stretch.

“Drake answered it,” Gates said. “I credit them, because they settled back in. We just didn’t execute. We got the shots. We had an opportunity to tie the game; that’s why we were down one. … We just didn’t make enough shots or have enough stops.”

Takeaways

Drake went 12 of 24 from the foul line but survived to snap a four-game losing streak in first-round NCAA Tournament games.

Missouri had lost four of its last five entering the tournament, and the Tigers sure looked like a slumping team in the first half. The result was a deficit that they were simply unable to overcome.

Up next

The Bulldogs will play Saturday for a spot in their first Sweet 16 since 1971.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.