Sports | basketball No. 20 Drake Wins Missouri Valley Title Emmenecker gets MVP honors as Bulldogs head to the Big Dance By Mike Buss Posted Mar 9, 2008 6:15 PM CDT Copied Members of the Drake basketball team celebrate after beating Illinois State for the Missouri Valley conference tournament championship on Sunday, March 9, 2008 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam) (Associated Press) Drake clinched its first NCAA tournament berth since 1971 with a 79-49 win over Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Championship game. Former walk-on Adam Emmenecker padded his conference player of the year status with 16 points and six assists to garner tournament MVP honors as well. The No. 20 Bulldogs shot 56% while improving to 28-4, writes the AP. A 22-2 run to close out the first half sealed the deal for Drake, as Illinois State was unable to muster any sort of second-half comeback. Jonathan Cox added 20 points, as the Bulldogs completed a sweep of the MVC regular season and tourney titles. As for making the Big Dance, Emmenecker said, "this is the big deal." Read These Next A family hike took a tragic turn in Arkansas on Saturday. White House makes Hegseth put his polygraph away. A new book argues the Sacagawea legend is all wrong. A New Zealand neighborhood is being stalked by a feline laundry thief. Report an error