 "Photo: UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt")
ST. LOUIS - WIth a little bit of magic and a solid performance from its lone senior, the Indiana State men's basketball team delivered the first upset of March Madness.
Center Jay Tunnell scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Sycamores' 62-55 win against Drake, the defending Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champions.
Indiana State head coach Kevin McKenna credited the team's offensive sets for the first-round upset.
"I thought our guys played with good effort tonight. Drake did as well, especially in the second half. They played more desperately than we did," McKenna said. "But we did some really good things against their zone. Anytime you go against a zone for 40 minutes you have to get creative."
The Bulldogs were one of the nation's Cinderella stories a season ago as it used a stellar zone defense and a keen 3-point shooting eye to rack up a 28-5 record. Drake earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but fell to the No. 12 seed Western Kentucky in overtime.
After the season, Drake lost its coach Keno Davis, who left to coach Providence, and its best player, former MVC Player of the Year Adam Emmenecker.
Drake finished 17-15 this season.
Senior Jonathan Cox did all he could to extend his final season. The former walk-on scored a game-high 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting from the field and 4-for-7 from the 3-point line.
Cox scored 18 second-half points as he attempted to spark a rally for Drake, which was down by 21 points with 15 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the second half. The Bulldogs were able to cut its defecit to one with 1:33 to go, but the Sycamores pulled away from that point.
Tunnell, who fouled out with 2:09 left in the game, said he felt fortunate to have contained Cox's teammates, as the Bulldogs' leading scorer was the only player to crack double figures.
"We let Cox get off a little bit tonight with 27, but they didn't have anyone else in double figures," Tunnel said. "That's a testament to our guards and Harry (Marshall) keeping probably one the best scorers in the league under double digits."
The scorer Tunnell referred to, Drake junior guard Josh Young, scored eight points on only 1-of-9 shooting and was held scoreless from the 3-point line.
Indiana State (11-20) moves past the play-in round and will face co-conference champion Northern Iowa. The top-seeded Panthers split the two games between the teams this season.
Luis C. Medina is on location in St. Louis and can be reached at lcm1986@siu.edu.
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