Rayvonte Rice scored 18 points and Ben Simons had 16 as Drake defeated Bradley 65-49 Thursday night in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
The seventh-seeded Bulldogs (17-14) advance to the quarterfinals on Friday when they'll face No. 2 seed Creighton.
Drake finished in a five-way tie for third place at 9-9 in the Missouri Valley - its second-highest finish in 26 years - but tiebreakers dropped the Bulldogs to the No. 7 seed.
Walt Lemon scored 16 points and Dyricus Simms-Edwards had 14 for 10th-seeded Bradley (7-25), which shot 34% from the field and hit just 4 of 20 3-point attempts.
Drake, which beat Bradley for the third time this season, dominated inside with a 40-22 advantage on points in the paint.
Indiana State walked away a 66-51 winner over Southern Illinois.
Top-seeded Wichita State plays number-eight Indiana State today, while number-seven Drake meets second-seeded Creighton tonight. Also today, Northern Iowa faces Illinois State and Evansville battles Missouri State.
