Drake Bulldogs Can't Handle Iowa State Cyclones

It didn't matter that Josh Young—who had suffered a hip pointer in practice last week—was healthy. Young was held to 11 points as the Drake Bulldogs fell to the faster, stronger Iowa State Cyclones 90-70.

The Cyclones made the 40-minute field trip from Ames to Des Moines to arrive at a Knapp Center half-filled with friendly colors of cardinal and gold.

Iowa State easily improved to 3-0 after leading by 19 at the break and never letting go of a double-digit margin after that.

Young drew first blood with a jumper, but that was about all the Drake faithful had to cheer for as Cyclones' guard Lucca Steiger soon silenced cheers with a three-pointer—of which Steiger gave the Bulldogs their fill.

Steiger would go on to score a career-high 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting beyond the arc.

Freshman Ben Simmons led the Bulldogs with 24 points, hitting four of six three-point attempts.

The Bulldogs hit 45.5 percent of three-point attempts but Iowa State had answers and then some for every shot.

As a team, Iowa State shot 60.9 percent from three-point range and 56.3 percent overall.

Stopping the opponent's big men proved to be a problem once again in Drake's second outing, as preseason All-Big 12 forward Craig Brackens recorded a double-double with 22 points and ten rebounds.

Iowa State will ride home pleased with the revenge it served Drake. The Bulldogs won the previous match-up in Des Moines 79-44. It was the Cyclones' worse loss ever to Drake.

As is the recurring trend nowadays, the Bulldogs were out-rebounded 39-21.

Whether Young was not 100 percent or the Cyclones really are 20 points better than the Bulldogs, Drake has a lot to figure out before traveling to Orlando this weekend to finish up the Glen Wilkes Classic.

Drake will compete against Georgia State at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Akron at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, and Central Florida at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.