Bradley beats Drake to move on to MVC quarterfinals

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ST. LOUIS -- Donte Thomas scored 17 points and No. 7 seed Bradley beat No. 10 seed Drake 67-58 in a first-round Missouri Valley Conference Tournament game Thursday night at the Scottrade Center.

The Braves advance to the quarterfinals Friday night to face No. 2 seed Wichita State.

Thomas hit a layup, a jumper and another layup to get Bradley started in the second half, but Drake hung on with a pair of Reed Timmer 3-pointers but could never overtake the Braves (13-19).

Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye added 11 points and Koch Bar and Darrell Brown each contributed 10 more as Bradley shot 23 of 53 from the field (43.4 percent), including 5 of 15 from 3-point range.

Drake (7-24) got 13 points from De'Antae McMurray, 12 from T.J. Thomas and 11 from Timmer while shooting 32.8 percent (19 of 58).