“I knew that we were going to go on a run,” Hemphill said. “Everybody knew that we were going to go on a run. It was only a matter of time.”
Drake trailed 69-65 with under five minutes remaining when Hemphill’s dunk cut the deficit to two points. Tremell Murphy, D.J. Wilkins and Roman Penn all added 3-pointers over the next three minutes to give the Bulldogs a 76-69 lead with one minute remaining.
What made the run sweeter for the Bulldogs is that all four players who scored grew up within a half hour from Valparaiso’s campus in an area of Northwest Indiana known as “The Region.”