Drake’s Emotional Arch Madness Final

Tucker DeVries Repeats as MVP

(St. Louis, MO) – Drake’s basketball team is going dancing! Arch Madness MVP Tucker DeVries scored 27 points during the team’s championship game victory over Indiana State, but it was an emotional Arch Madness final.

Drake defeated Indiana State 84-80.

The final score doesn’t come close to telling the story of this championship masterpiece. Drake played practically a perfectly game and Indiana State played nearly ten minutes of perfect basketball. The Bulldogs made their first seven three-pointers and eventually built an 18-point lead (67-49) over the regular season champion Sycamores.

With 10:08 left, Josh Schertz’s team took over the game behind an Isaiah Swope-led offensive eruption. Six minutes later, the Trees led the game 73-72. Swope scored eleven points in that time span. He was held scoreless in the first half and racked up 19 second half points.

Just as it looked like ISU was going to pull off the unlikely comeback while leading 76-74 with 3:36 to go, Drake went on its own 7-0 run to put the game away, to claim the Arch Madness title and earn an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

Emotional Arch Madness Final

There are always emotions surrounding championship games. DeVries was tearful during ‘on-the-court’ postgame comments saying, “it’s been a long year personally”. When asked about those emotions he talked about losing a 19-year-old cousin last summer.

Easton DeVries struggled with a rare heart condition and passed away last summer.

Darian DeVries told me, that Tucker had devoted Sunday’s game to Easton and Easton’s parents Jared and Jamie. Jared is Darian’s younger brother and a former NFL defensive lineman. Tucker said seeing his uncle, aunt and other cousin in the stands brought all those emotions front and center.

Easton was not only close with Tucker, but came annually to Arch Madness weekends, so that loss was felt even more acutely. Tucker said they came to these games together as kids and that Easton was a big supporter of his collegiate career. During Drake’s midseason cancer awareness game, Darian was noticeably emotional. Sunday, he confirmed to me, those emotions were related to Easton’s passing.

Sometimes we forget these athletes and coaches are people that experience difficult life issues.

Indiana State’s Emotions

Deep in the tunnels of the Enterprise Center, Josh Schertz told me that ISU’s loss was ‘gut wrenching’ and that several players in his locker room were in tears. While the Sycamores must wait to see if the NCAA Selection Committee thinks their 26 NET ranking, national leading effective field goal percentage and 28 wins are worthy of a bid in the NCAA Tournament, they’ll be tortured with ‘what ifs’. While Robbie Avila played a brilliant 21-point semifinal game, his second game in as many days, while being what Schertz called being ‘sicker than a dog’ for several days.

Avila fought through 35 minutes of play and still scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out four assists, but made just one of his seven three-point attempts. His Drake counterpart Darnell Brodie scored 17 points and grabbed eight boards. In no way, am I suggesting ISU lost because of Avila’s illness or that the loss was his fault. However, day two was much more difficult than day one for the ‘under-the-weather’ Avila.

ABC’s Wide World of Sports would open its show with the phrase, ‘the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat’. For the celebrating DeVries family there is also a melancholy memory and for the defeated Sycamores, hope remains of more basketball to be played.

This was clearly an emotional Arch Madness final.

Do Good

Editor: Photos courtesy of the Missouri Valley Conference.