IOWA CITY - Drake didn't blink.

In its 20 most recent visits to Iowa City, what would have happened to the Bulldogs after an 18-5 run by Iowa would have been fairly predictable - Drake would have wilted.

That was then. This is now.

Friday, the Bulldogs answered the Iowa basketball team's attempt at a knockout punch, picking itself up off the Carver-Hawkeye Arena parquet and delivering a dagger of its own.

Drake answered with a 19-7 run of its own, then finished off the Hawkeyes by hitting five of seven free throws in the final 33 seconds of a 56-51 win over Iowa.

The win was the Bulldogs' second straight over the Hawkeyes, their sixth straight over an in-state opponent and their first in Iowa City since 1967.

"A couple of years ago, Drake doesn't win this game," first-year coach Keno Davis said. "Iowa would have taken a lead and that would have been it right there. I think we've turned the corner. This game could have gone either way and we're just happy to come out on the winning end."

The Bulldogs celebrated their first win at Iowa in 40 years because of the leadership Drake found after the Hawkeyes opened the second half with an 18-5 run which was fueled by an 8-for-10 start from the field.

The effort allowed a lay-in by Jake Kelly with 15 minutes, 6 seconds remaining to put Iowa on top, 32-31, the first lead for the Hawkeyes since the midpoint of the first half.

Iowa's lead reached 39-34 on a 3-pointer by Tony Freeman with 11:54 to play, but the Hawkeyes managed just one field goal over the next nine minutes.

Consecutive baskets from behind the arc by seniors Kyle Korver and Leonard Houston and a lay-in by Young with 2:46 left Iowa in a 48-41 hole.

"For 30 minutes, we came out and defended, we were doing a lot of what we wanted to do," said freshman Jarryd Cole, who led Iowa with 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting. "Then, we had lapses and they took advantage of it. We couldn't close the door."

The Hawkeyes couldn't find their way to the free-throw line, either.

Iowa did not attempt a single free throw in the game, while Drake (9-1) helped itself to a 12-of-17 performance at the stripe.

As much as anything, that illustrated the Hawkeyes' willingness to settle for jumpshots against an opponent which stuck to a zone with a Bulldog-like tenacity.

"If Iowa was going to beat us tonight, they were going to do beat us with jumpshots," Davis said. "I felt if we went out and pressured, that we would have gotten eaten up inside. We had to pack it in and force them to shoot jumpers to be successful tonight."

Young, held scoreless in the Bulldogs' 75-59 win over the Hawkeyes at Des Moines last season, finished with 14 points to lead a group of four Drake players in double figures.

The Bulldogs won despite shooting a season-low 34.6 percent from the field and equaling a season low with eight 3-point baskets.

"We had to win this one with our defense," Young said. "Their guys on the perimeter, (Justin) Johnson and (Jake) Kelly have been making some big shots for them, a lot of 3-pointers, we had to make things tough for them."

Still, 3-point baskets accounted for the first 18 points of the game, but the Hawkeyes (6-6) then went more than 12 minutes without one before Freeman ignored his 0-for-7 start from the field to hit nothing but net from the left corner with :05 to play in the first half.

Freeman's first basket of the game left Drake with a 29-21 halftime lead, a margin it built by limiting Iowa to three field goals over the final 10 minutes of the opening half.

The Hawkeyes went scoreless for a 5-minute stretch as Drake ran off 12 unanswered points and by the time Seth Gorney slammed through a putback with 5:17 remaining, the Bulldogs had opened a 25-14 advantage.

"We missed some opportunities in the first half, and I thought we made the adjustments we needed to make at the half, but when it came time to play down the stretch, we struggled," Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. "Decent looks wouldn't fall and they we had some ball-handling errors that they capitalized on. We weren't consistent enough to win."

Contact Steve Batterson at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com

Iowa items

- The Hawkeyes and Bulldogs battled to a 33-33 draw on the boards. The Bulldogs' Jonathan Cox finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.

- Iowa sports information officials were unable to determine the most recent time the Hawkeyes were held without a free-throw attempt before Friday, a statistic that is not available in Iowa's media guides.

- Kurt Looby did not start for the first time in Iowa's 12 games this season. Seth Gorney made his start in five games in his place.

- With finals week beginning Monday and a holiday break early the following week, the Hawkeyes are idle until Dec. 29 when Southeastern Louisiana visits Iowa at 8 p.m.

Drake Mn FG-A FT-A Rb As PF TP

Korver 31 3-10 2-2 4 0 0 10

Cox 32 3-9 3-4 10 1 1 10

Houston 31 3-5 2-2 2 2 1 10

Emmenecker 33 0-2 1-2 7 3 1 1

Young 37 4-14 4-5 2 3 3 14

Heemskerk 17 1-1 0-2 5 1 1 2

Baryenbruch 3 1-3 0-0 0 0 1 3

Parker 7 1-3 0-0 1 1 2 2

Hall 9 2-5 0-0 1 1 0 4

Team 1

Totals 200 18-52 12-17 33 12 10 56

Iowa Mn FG-A FT-A Rb As PF TP

Cole 32 6-6 0-0 5 0 3 12

Gorney 13 1-3 0-0 2 1 1 2

Johnson 36 3-9 0-0 4 3 3 8

Peterson 31 3-6 0-0 5 5 4 7

Kelly 29 3-6 0-0 1 1 4 8

Palmer 3 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Angle 6 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 3

Freeman 22 3-14 0-0 2 0 2 9

Tate 4 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Looby 24 1-5 0-0 7 3 2 2

Team 6

Totals 200 21-50 0-0 33 13 21 51

Drake 29 27 - 56

Iowa 21 30 - 51

3-point goals - Drake 8-27 (Houston 2-3, Korver 2-9, Young 2-9, Cox 1-2, Baryenbruch 1-3, Parker 0-1), Iowa 9-21 (Freeman 3-7, Kelly 2-2, Johnson 2-8, Angle 1-1, Peterson 1-3). Turnovers - Drake 10 (Young 3), Iowa 16 (Cole 4).

Officials-David Hall, John Higgins, Mark Whitehead. A-9,619.