Braden Appelhans sets record in Drake win over Western Illinois

The Drake men’s basketball program has had its fair share of sharpshooters.

Tucker DeVries, Reed Timmer, D.J. Wilkins and Josh Young, all former Bulldogs players who made hitting 3-pointers look easy. And those players all made their way into the record books by collecting hundreds of 3s throughout their careers.

On Tuesday, Dec. 2, – in Drake’s 108-57 win over Western Illinois – another player cemented his spot in Bulldogs history.

Braden Appelhans, a 6-foot-6 guard who transferred from New Mexico, scored a game-high 30 points, all of which came from behind the arc. He went 10-of-14 from 3-point range, breaking a school record in the process.

The most 3-pointers scored by a Drake player in a single game was nine, accomplished by Jeff Allen against Tulsa in January 1994. That record stood for well over 30 years, until Appelhans took control against the Leathernecks on Tuesday.

“I actually didn’t know I’d broken the record until he told me in the hallway,” Appelhans said postgame. “(It was) really just trusting the offense, trusting my teammates, knowing they’ll give me the ball when I’m open.”

It marked a turnaround performance for Appelhans, who went 1-of-7 from 3-point range in Drake’s game against Georgia Tech, scoring just three total points in nearly 16 minutes of playing time.

“As far as Braden, he puts in a lot of work,” said head coach Eric Henderson. “He has a great amount of confidence in his shot, and so do his teammates. We want him to shoot more…because we believe that much in his shot.”

By the end of the game, he accounted for 30 of the bench’s 45 total points. Appelhans previously scored a career-high of 18 points, a mark he hit against Western New Mexico in 2024, when he played for the Lobos.

The redshirt junior wasn’t the only player whose shots were falling against Western Illinois.

Five players – Appelhans (10), Jaehshon Thomas (4), Eli Shetlar (3), Jalen Quinn (1) and Andrew Alia (1) – netted at least one 3-pointer. The Bulldogs sank 19 shots from long range, which set another school record. The previous mark was 18, which Drake hit during a 124-48 win over St. Ambrose in 2022.

“That’s what excites me the most about this group,” Henderson said. “Our ability to celebrate each other and connect with each other. And how we shared the basketball. We’ve talked about assisted field goals a lot, and we want to make sure we’re shooting as many assisted 3-point shots as we possibly can.”

The Bulldogs finished with 22 total assists, and several of those passes resulted in a highlight-reel-worthy 3-pointer.

With the win over Western Illinois, Drake (6-3) pieced together another two-game winning streak. After an up-and-down start to the season, the Bulldogs will see if they can make that three wins in a row when they face UAB on Friday, Dec. 5.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at [email protected] or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Braden Appelhans sets record in Drake's win over Western Illinois