The Drake men’s basketball team fell to 6-7 overall and 0-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 75-63 loss to Wichita State Wednesday night in Des Moines. The Shockers are now 13-1 overall and 2-0 in the Valley.
Drake Coach Mark Phelps said the most telling statistic was the Bulldogs’ 19 turnovers. “We killed ourselves taking care of the ball. We’ve got to do a better job taking care of the ball,” Phelps said. “When you give a team 29 points off 19 turnovers that’s hard to overcome.”
The Bulldogs’ leading scorer this season, senior Ben Simons, managed just 6 shots from the floor and scored only 8 points. Phelps gave credit to the Wichita State defense. “Certainly, they’re keying on Ben but we have to get more productivity out of our pre-season first-team Missouri Valley player,” Phelps said. “He’ll step up. He’s wanting to in a really bad way. Sometimes you get in one of those modes that you want to so badly that it kind of has a reverse effect on you. But, he’ll step up.”
On Saturday, Drake will play host to Missouri State. The Bears lost at Evansville Wednesday night, 62-59 in overtime.