Stream of semi-consciousness from Drake-UNI MVC tourney game

I am at courtside in the Scottstrade Center in St. Louis. It's Drake and UNI in the Missouri Valley Conference quarterfinals.

I don't understand why the pairings are set up so that Drake got done playing at 8 p.m. on Thursday (its 63-61 win over Southern Illinois) only to come back at noon today against the top-seeded Panthers. But I'll save my outrage for tyrants, thugs and anyone who would waste time watching "The Bachelor."

Last night I checked into a St. Louis-area hotel. Outside the hotel in a makeshift pen were several dogs. Big dogs.  Dogs the size of ponies. Dogs that looked at me as if I were a big dog biscuit.

I nervously entered the lobby and found out about this:

Belle City Kennel Club Dog Show: Open to the public from 8 a.m. until finished showing, usually 4 p.m., Belle Clair Fairgrounds, Belleville. Through Sunday.

I asked the desk clerk if the dogs were staying in the hotel. Yes, they were. I asked if I could have a room away from the dogs in case, you know, they barked. Or they just felt like knocking my door down in the middle of the night. Everything was fine. I heard no barking, and I lived to tell this tale.

But those sure didn't look like Westminster Dog Show dogs. At any rate, let's now focus on other dogs, the Bulldogs. And the Panthers.

UNI's fans have Drake's outnumbered by roughly 20 to 1. The areas around the Panthers' bench are full, but the rest of this NHL arena has a whole lot of empty seats. No surprise for a 12:05 Friday game featuring two teams from Iowa.

First TV timeout: Drake 11-9 with 14:25 left. A score-a-thon. UNI is second in the nation in scoring defense, but Drake has five baskets in 5:35. Drake's Josh Young had one of the pretties sets of offensive moves for a basket I've seen in person all season. Adam Koch has two baskets and an assist, Jordan Eglseder one basket and one nice assist.

Second TV timeout: Drake 17-11 with 11:04 left. Drake got 3-pointers from Young and Ben Simons for a 17-9 lead. UNI forced a 35-second call right before the timeout.

There is a nice two-page spread on the Panthers in the latest Sporting News. I know this because I got an oil change this morning and a Sporting News was in the waiting room. I needed the oil-change because the company car I drove to St. Louis had ZERO PERCENT oil level.

UNI timeout with 7:56 left, Drake up 24-13. UNI chucking threes and missing. Drake just got one from freshman Aaron Hawley. Panthers' offense out of synch. Drake's is not. UNI is 1-of-8 from 3-point. Drake is 10-of-15 from the field, 4-of-6 in threes.

I can already hear the questions about whether UNI's place in the NCAAs is secure.

Timeout with 3:59 left. Drake 24-15. Panthers' defense is fine, but the offense remains locked up. Lucas O'Rear scored at one end after forcing a traveling call at the other, but that was UNI's only hoop in the last five minutes. If UNI were just 3-of-9 from 3-point instead of 1-of-9. Ali Farokhmanesh hasn't been close in four misses.

Drake timeout with :46 left, Drake up 24-21. Obviously, it's been a good three minutes for UNI. Panther fans here are doing their best to rouse their team.

Halftime: Drake 24-23. A 10-0 UNI run to close the half. Kwadzo Ahelegbe had a beauty of a drive with :03 left to close the half. It was his first two points.

Halftime numbers: Rebounds even at 13. Shooting almost identical. Turnovers, too. Hmmm, must be a one-point game.

UNI was the No. 1 seed here last year and was tied with Indiana State at halftime of their quarterfinal game. The Panthers got untracked. Today? I would think so, but this is Arch Madness, after all.

Panthers grab a 25-24 lead on an Eglseder hoop - first UNI lead in a long time. ... Johnny Moran makes a 3, UNI defensive rebound, 28-24. ... Adam Koch gets third foul with 16:57 left and is pulled, 28-26.

Farokhmanesh just made two 3-pointers ON ONE POSSESSION, Drake time with 15:54 left, UNI up 34-26. After Ali's first three there was a foul on Drake. UNI in-bounded, Farokhmanesh missed, but the ball subsequently went out of bounds to UNI. Then Ali swished another.

Timeout, 15:47 left, still 34-26. Farokhmanesh really does think he'll make every shot. He was stone-cold in the first-half, and it has affected his mindset not a whit. Moran got this thing rolling with his 3-pointer with 18:09 left. He had the only Panther three in the first-half. UNI went on a 6-0 run after the MVC's Player of the Year (Koch) went to the sideline with his third foul. ... Other teams profiled in The Sporting News this week were Cornell, St. Mary's and Western Carolina.

Drake totally bottled on offense. Moran scored a reverse lay-in in transition. Drake had to shoot to beat the 35-second clock and missed. UNI up 36-26 with 13:25 left. Drake with no baskets in first seven-and-a-half minutes of the 2nd half.

UNI time with 11:45 left, Panthers up 38-26. Lucas O'Rear has again given UNI great energy and defense off the bench. Moran is having a superb defensive game at guard.

Timeout with 11:19 left, UNI up 40-26. Ahelegbe just had one of his trademark acrobatic knifes to the hoop for a score. UNI has outscored Drake 17-2 in this half, with the only Bulldog points on freep-throws 5:38 ago. I guess I'm going to have to check back into a hotel tonight. One with dogs, no doubt. Better that than other members of the animal kingdom, like bedbugs.

UNI is 6-of-10 from the field this half, Drake 0-of-6.

Oh my gosh, Drake's last basket came with 7:59 left in the first half - that's now almost a full half since there is 9:47 left in the second with UNI up 42-26. ... A Drake free-throw makes it 42-27. Drake's first point in almost eight full minutes.

This is crazy. Timeout with 7:39 left, UNI up 46-27. Drake has gone the last 20:20 without a basket, and has just three points total in that time. Panthers on a 33-3 run. That's not a typo.

The Drake nightmare is over, sort of. Ryan Wedel swished a 3 with 6:59 left. That's an even 21 minutes between baskets. UNI leads 46-31. ... With his team up 50-31, Ahelegbe took a charge on Young.

Drake time, 4:11 left, UNI 51-36. Drake still with just two baskets this half, in a meager 13 tries.

Same score, 3:35 left. UNI came in with the nation's second-lowest defensive scoring average at 55 points and change, and it only goes lower today. Drake had 17 points in the first 8 minutes, has had 19 points in the next 28 minutes.

The Chicago Bears getting running back Chester Taylor is a very nice signing. I'm no Bears fan, just sayin'.

This score won't hurt UNI with the NCAA tournament committee. It's 53-36 with 2:25 left.

Like a dope, I packed everything I needed for this trip but pants. Time to get out the Kohl's card. (Kohl's, that's called a free ad.)

Final: UNI 55-40. I'll have a column with (probably) videos to come later in the afternoon.