Emmenecker, No. 20 Drake Win MVC Title

Adam Emmenecker wound up a dazzling weekend with 16 points and six assists, and Jonathan Cox had 20 points to lead No. 20 Drake to its first Missouri Valley Conference tournament title with a 79-49 rout of Illinois State on Sunday.

Klayton Korver added 10 points for Drake (28-4), which shot 55.6 percent and became the first school to sweep the regular-season and tournament titles since co-champ Creighton in 2002.

The title game matched rookie head coaches from programs picked to finish near the bottom of the conference and coming off a combined 32-31 showing in 2006-07, and Drake became the first top seed to win the tournament in 11 seasons.

A 19-0 run late in the first half allowed the celebration to commence early for the automatic NCAA berth, Drake's first since 1971 and first postseason bid of any kind since making the NIT field in 1986. The Bulldogs led 40-19 at the half against a team that forced them to rally from double-digit deficits in both regular season meetings, and the gap grew to 33 points before coach Keno Davis began emptying the bench.

Illinois State's last lead was at 9-6 just after the five-minute mark. Drake won three tournament games by an average of 20 points with a mix of long-range shooting, going 10-for-24 from 3-point range in the final, and deft passing that often led to easy layups.

The 6-foot-1 Emmenecker, a former walk-on, had only two career starts before emerging as Valley player of the year his senior season. He had his first career rebounds-points double-double in the quarterfinals, and a little-man double-double with 20 points and a career-high 11 assists in the semifinals.

Osiris Eldridge had 14 points for Illinois State (24-9), the No. 2 tournament seed led by coach Tim Jankovich that entered with a six-game winning streak. But he scored only five on 2-for-9 shooting in the first half as the game got away, and the Redbirds absorbed their worst beating since an 82-43 loss at Creighton on Dec. 12, 1999..

Six players contributed to the 19-0 run over 6 1/2 minutes that transformed a one-point game into a rout. The Bulldogs were 8-for-10 and scored on seven consecutive possessions, while hounding Illinois State to 0-for-6 with five turnovers.

After missing six of its first seven shots, Drake ended up at 53 percent for the half while Illinois State was 1-for-9 from 3-point range and shot 37.5 percent overall.

Eldridge scored off his own miss after a couple of Drake players batted the rebound free with 7:34 to go to cut Drake's lead to 18-17, but Illinois State didn't score again until Dom Johnson's basket in the lane with 1:01 left made it 37-19. Drake was 5-for-11 on 3-pointers in the half, the last by the 6-8 Cox in the final minute for a 40-19 lead at the break.

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