Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa--A short-handed Drake Bulldogs men's
basketball team was unable to overcome a hot start by the visiting Quincy Hawks,
falling 84-74 in an exhibition Saturday at the Knapp Center. Junior Ben Simons (Cadillac, Mich.) led all
scorers with a career-high 34 points and 8 rebounds. The Hawks were led by Senior Justin Brock
with 21 points and 14 rebounds while junior Marshawn Norris and freshman Scott
Hahn pitched in 14 points apiece.
The most impressive
performance of the afternoon came from Simons who was 12 of 19 from the field,
including 4 of 5 from three-point range, while playing all 40 minutes.
Drake head coach
Mark Phelps had great admiration for
his star junior.
"What a great
performance today by Ben," Phelps said. "Ben
played all five positions today. He is
an unbelievable player in terms of his versatility. To understand and know what we're doing on
both sides of the court from all five positions is extremely impressive and certainly
we needed his scoring. Moving forward
I'm sure that gives him an elevated confidence level."
Quincy head coach
Marty Bell has a developed a strong program at the Division II school on the
Illinois border, sharing the Great Lakes Valley Conference title last year and building
a 142-93 record in his eight seasons at the helm. Former Drake head coach Kurt Kanaskie's son,
Kevin, is a graduate assistant on Bell's staff.
The Bulldogs
dressed only five scholarship players because of widespread injury and two
suspensions. Of the five, Simons and Aaron Hawley (Rogers, Ark.) were the
only players to average significant minutes on last year's squad. Walk-on Cory Parker (Aspen, Colo.) played 37 minutes, 30 fewer than he played all of
last season, while freshman Judd Welfringer (Waukee, Iowa) and redshirt-freshman Karl Madison (Springfield, Ill.) played their first minutes as
Bulldogs, rounding out the starting line up.
Phelps felt
Parker battled through adversity to have a strong showing when his team
needed.
"Cory is really
an inspiration in terms of how he battles," Phelps said. "Cory has a foot
problem that a lot of us wouldn't play with but he goes out there for 37
minutes today and battles a real good front-court player."
"This game was
great preparation for [the upcoming season].
Moving forward we anticipate having the guys who were injured back. We've now got a week to get ready, a week to
get better, and a week to get healed."
Phelps' Bulldogs
have a week of practice to regroup and heal before their regular season opener
next Saturday against Upper Iowa. Tipoff
at the Knapp Center is set for 7:05 p.m.
Quincy will take its momentum to Champaign, Ill., on Monday to play the Fighting
Illini of the University of Illinois.