Aaron Hawley News

WSU's David Kyles slams down a alley-oop from teammate Toure' Murry in the 2nd half Friday, Jan.

Drake and Wichita State will both be looking to rebound, literally and figuratively, in Friday night's men's basketball game.

Junior guard Andrew Warren scored a season-high 24 points, including 19 in the second half, as Bradley rallied from a five-point deficit to spoil Drake's Missouri Valley Conference opener, 67-59, Tuesday night at the Drake Knapp Center.

The Drake Bulldogs are a perplexing squad to watch in action. In Friday's game against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, one minute they were up 20 points, the next they were left gasping for breath during a time out after the Cougars' forward Mark Yelovich nailed a three-pointer to bring his team within one point of Drake.

Drake was angry when it wanted to be, and composed when it had to be. The Bulldogs opened each half with an intense barrage of points, then withstood North Dakota's rallies Saturday to earn a 72-63 victory in the consolation game of the Hy-Vee Classic before an announced crowd of 4,152 at the Knapp Center.

Drake got 17 points from Josh Young and 16 from Aaron Hawley on Saturday night to defeat North Dakota 72-63. The Bulldogs were ahead 37-27 at halftime and opened the second half with a 12-2 run to build that lead to 49-29. North Dakota got within six, 69-63, in the final minute but ran out of time down the stretch.

Just six games into the season, the Drake men's basketball team already has found six proven scorers.

Ryan Wedel scored 21 points to lead Drake to a 78-72 win over Austin Peay on Saturday night.Wedel shot 7-for-11 from the field and nailed five 3-pointers for the Bulldogs .

Drake leads Austin Peay 74-72 with 1:04 left in their non-conference game at the Dunn Center.

No, Barnes isn't spending time on Facebook. He's keeping up with three former Mounties players that are playing Division I basketball.

There is no disputing that Aaron Hawley and Morgan Hook are among the best, if not the best, male and female basketball players to come out of Rogers High.

But when the time came for the Fayetteville guard to make a decision about college, he wanted to go somewhere not so close to home.

With a young roster, there are bound to be growing pains. While breaking in 10 new players, the Drake men's basketball team took a 74-58 exhibition win over Division II Upper Iowa on Saturday night at the Knapp Center.

Yes, the Mounties lost several key starters from that 24-6 team, including Aaron Hawley, who is now playing at Division I Drake University.

It's one of the oldest psychological ploys in the books, and it's coming to the Drake men's basketball team this winter.