NCAA Tournament: Tremell Murphy, Darnell Brodie deliver big shots late to lift Drake over Wichita State
Mark Emmert
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Tremell Murphy missed his first three 3-point shots Thursday, added a couple of turnovers, and was starting to wonder if his night was ever going to get better.
Darnell Brodie was frustrated to hear four whistles go against him while trying to be Drake’s lone force in the paint, knowing he couldn’t help his team if he was seated on the bench.
It was Joseph Yesufu’s cold-blooded offense and D.J. Wilkins’ stone-walled defense that kept the Bulldogs in their NCAA Tournament game against Wichita State at Mackey Arena. But it was Murphy and Brodie who rose up late to usher the Shockers out of the Big Dance with a 53-52 Drake win that was the program's first victory in this event in exactly 50 years.
“We’re not a team that gets pushed around,” Murphy said after making his final three 3-pointers, including the one that put the Bulldogs (26-4) ahead to stay. “We stand our ground. We’re going to punch back.”
Drake was listless in the first half and fell behind by 12 points before Yesufu scored the first seven of his 21 points to keep Wichita State (16-6) within reach.
The Bulldogs apparently weren’t done challenging themselves, so they let the Shockers rebuild that 12-point cushion in the second half.
Drake's comeback against Wichita started with Tremell Murphy
That’s when Murphy, a fifth-year senior forward from Griffith, Indiana, playing in front of 15 family members and friends, connected on his first 3-pointer to begin the comeback. He had missed eight of his previous nine attempts. Coach Darian DeVries told him to keep shooting, so he did.
Murphy’s next 3 cut the deficit to 42-37. His final one, with 2 minutes, 22 seconds remaining, came from the left elbow in front of the Drake bench, with one voice ringing in his ear.
“I heard coach D-Rock say, ‘Knock it down,’” Murphy said, calling DeVries by his nickname. “I just knocked it down. I believed in myself.”
That put the Bulldogs ahead 49-47. Murphy said it was the most important shot he’s ever made.
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Darnell Brodie brought Drake's biggest lead in the NCAA game
Brodie, a 6-foot-10 junior center not known for his scoring, doubled down on that sentiment. With the shot clock winding down and 1:02 on the game clock, he swished a baseline turnaround jump shot from 12 feet as if he’d been doing it his whole life.
“I’d seen him make that a couple of times before,” Murphy said. “In practice.”
That was Drake’s biggest lead of the game, at 51-47. Finally, after a pair of stretches of inelegant offense that produced zero field goals over a combined 17 minutes, the Bulldogs had given themselves a little cushion.
“We didn’t have any rhythm to really anything we were doing,” DeVries said, summing up the offense.
But those two shots by Murphy and Brodie were perfectly in rhythm.
“I knew it was going in,” Brodie said.
“I’m all about winning. Whatever I need to do, I’m going to do.”
Brodie produced nine points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots, all while the threat of a fifth foul clung to him like Wilkins clung to Wichita State star Tyson Etienne. The sophomore guard averaged 17.7 points per game coming into the biggest one of the season. Wilkins allowed him just a single point, with a pair of turnovers thrown in.
“He’s so focused defensively,” DeVries said of Wilkins, a junior from Merrillville, Indiana. “He understands where guys are trying to get to. He beats them to spots.”
Drake still had to survive an Alterique Gilbert 3-point attempt as the final horn sounded, a shot that was on target but just a little short. Murphy admitted that his heart stopped for a second as he watched its trajectory, believing it was going in.
Then he was at midcourt celebrating with his teammates after pulling out the type of victory that seems to define this tournament, and this Drake team. The Bulldogs are 6-0 in games decided by five points or less, and have won six times after trailing by 10 points or more.
NCAA Tournament win pits Drake vs. USC Saturday
The reward for the Bulldogs is a matchup with sixth-seeded USC at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The game will be broadcast on TNT.
Drake is a veteran team, but none of the players had experienced a moment like this before. And so they celebrated like kids in the locker room, before quickly refocusing during the 75-minute bus ride back to Indianapolis.
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“It was phenomenal. Water was everywhere. A bunch of smiles. The whole team was in a great mood,” Murphy said of the postgame scene.
“It feels good. But we aren’t done yet.”
Murphy’s timely 3-pointers made sure of that.
Mark Emmert covers the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Register. Reach him at memmert@registermedia.com or 319-339-7367. Follow him on Twitter at @MarkEmmert.