Joseph Yesufu

CEDAR FALLS — The Drake University men’s basketball team earned a season sweep of Northern Iowa with Wednesday’s 77-69 triumph inside the McLeod Center.

The win was the third-straight in the series for the Bulldogs (21-2, 12-2), who hadn’t won in Cedar Falls since 2009.

Joseph Yesufu led the way with a career-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting and four 3-pointers for Drake. Yesufu had scored 18 points against the Panthers in their first meeting this season.

Newton native Garrett Sturtz also notched a career-best with 19 points, while Tremell Murphy added 14 points. Darnell Brodie had another double-figure night on the glass with 10 rebounds and Roman Penn had eight assists and four steals.

“It was a good win for us on the road,” said Drake head coach Darian DeVries. “We knew it would be a tough, hard-fought game and it certainly was that. We had some guys step up in that second half that made some big plays to allow us to get that ‘W’.”

Austin Phyfe led Northern Iowa (7-15, 5-11 MVC) with 19 points while Trae Berhow added 13 in the loss.

Yesufu had four first-half 3-pointers to help Drake keep pace with a hot start from UNI as neither team led by more than a possession for the first 30 minutes of the game.

“I thought Joe was great, he gave us that pop we needed to get started in the first half and in the second half he did a great job getting in the paint and finishing at the rim,” DeVries said. “That really kept our offense going and was the difference in the game for us.”

UNI freshman Bowen Born tied the game at 45-all on a 3-pointer with 13:23 left, but Drake responded with a 12-2 run that included five points from Yesufu to take a double-digit lead less than three minutes later at 57-47.

UNI got no closer than six the rest of the way.

“Every night you have to find different ways to win and tonight was no different,” DeVries said. “Some different guys had to give us contributions to pull this one out. That’s what league play is, especially in February.”

Drake 77, UNI 69

DRAKE (21-2) — Brodie 1-3 2-3 4, Murphy 5-9 2-2 14, Penn 1-4 1-2 3, Sturtz 8-13 2-3 19, Wilkins 3-9 1-2 9, Yesufu 8-16 0-0 20, Samake 4-5 0-1 8, Jackson 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 30-60 8-13 77.

N. IOWA (7-15) — Carter 2-6 2-2 7, Phyfe 8-12 2-5 19, Berhow 6-15 0-0 13, Born 4-17 0-0 10, Heise 5-9 0-0 12, Pickford 2-5 0-0 4, Henry 2-2 0-0 4, Anderson 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 29-66 4-7 69.

Halftime–Drake 31-30. 3-Point Goals–Drake 9-25 (Yesufu 4-8, Murphy 2-5, Wilkins 2-8, Sturtz 1-2, Jackson 0-1, Penn 0-1), UNI 7-29 (Heise 2-5, Born 2-9, Phyfe 1-2, Carter 1-4, Berhow 1-7, Pickford 0-2). Rebounds–Drake 32 (Brodie 10), UNI 35 (Carter 9). Assists–Drake 19 (Penn 8), UNI 18 (Pickford 5). Total Fouls–Drake 13, UNI 15. A–914 (6,650).