GREELEY, Colo. — Midway through the second half on Sunday in the Drake men’s basketball team’s second-round game in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament against Northern Colorado, the Bulldogs found themselves in some trouble.

After entering halftime down seven points, 36-29, Drake saw that deficit grow to as many as 14 points with the clock dropping under six minutes remaining. That didn’t stop the Bulldogs from fighting back, however, as they reduced the Bear lead to just five with a little over two minutes left. Northern Colorado was able to hold off the Bulldog comeback, however, and close out the half on a 11-7 run to advance to the next round with an 81-72 win.

Drake head coach Niko Medved, coaching the team to the postseason in his first season at the helm, said his guys were outworked in the end.

“I thought we came out decent, but didn’t have the fight we needed tonight,” Medved said. “But what I think about with this group, is I think about what they’ve done in changing the energy in this program, that is so much bigger than any one game. I’m really proud of them and it’s been a great year.”

It was a good start to the game for Drake (17-17) as they jumped out to an early 8-4 lead, but Northern Colorado (23-12) went on a 9-0 run after a timeout and took a lead it would never relinquish.

Bulldog junior Nick McGlynn went for a career-high 24 points, only his third 20-point effort of the season, and he added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Senior Reed Timmer struggled with his shot early on but he got going in the second quarter during Drake’s comeback attempt, and he finished with 20 points on 6-of-18 shooting.

With that performance, Timmer capped his historic Bulldog career by reaching the 2,000 point mark, the first player in Drake history to ever reach that milestone. Timmer finishes as not only the most prolific scorer in program history, he is the 17th all-time leading scorer in Missouri Valley Conference history.

What truly hurt the Bulldogs on Sunday was turnovers, as they had 15 giveaways in just the first 30 minutes of the contest. In the final 10 minutes, Drake only turned it over once, leading to the near comeback.

The other difference was Northern Colorado’s ability to shoot from deep, as the Bears finished 11-for-22 from behind the 3-point line for a 50 percent clip, compared to just 27.8 percent for the Bulldogs.

Andre Spight finished with 21 points to lead Northern Colorado, while Tanner Morgan had 19 points and eight rebounds and Jordan Davis finished with a triple double of 12 points, 11 boards and 10 assists.

Drake ends the season with a .500 record, the first time the Bulldogs have finished without a losing record since going 18-16 in 2012.

“It’s been a fun season and you hate to see it come to an end,” Medved said. “Now we’re going to take a deep breath and then start to focus on the continuing to get better in the offseason.”

NORTHERN COLORADO 81, DRAKE 72

At Greeley, Colo.

DRAKE (17-17) — McGlynn 10-16 3-3 24, Timmer 6-18 6-6 20, McMurray 2-8 0-0 5, Rivers 2-4 0-0 5, Arogundade 0-3 1-2 1, Schlatter 1-2 0-0 2, Thomas 3-4 1-3 7, Woodward 1-2 2-5 4, Gibbs 0-2 4-6 4, Gholson 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 25-59 17-25 72.

N. COLORADO (23-12) — Morgan 9-12 0-0 19, Radebaugh 2-6 3-4 9, Spight 7-18 1-4 21, Davis 3-9 6-10 12, Sanders 4-5 0-0 9, Edwards 1-2 0-2 2, Reyes 0-0 0-0 0, A.Johnson 2-5 4-6 9, Loose 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 28-57 14-26 81.

Halftime–N. Colorado 36-29. 3-Point Goals–Drake 5-18 (Timmer 2-5, McGlynn 1-2, Rivers 1-2, McMurray 1-3, Thomas 0-1, Gibbs 0-2, Arogundade 0-3), N. Colorado 11-22 (Spight 6-11, Radebaugh 2-4, Morgan 1-1, Sanders 1-1, A.Johnson 1-3, Davis 0-2). Fouled Out–Woodward. Rebounds–Drake 42 (McGlynn 11), N. Colorado 31 (Davis 11). Assists–Drake 11 (Rivers 3), N. Colorado 15 (Davis 10). Total Fouls–Drake 21, N. Colorado 19. A–1,074 (2,734).