Tevin Foster scored 18 points to lead four Panthers in double-figures and Drury took care of business at home with a 79-70 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Saturday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Joshua Palmer and Kameron Bundy added 14 points each and Drew Moore had 10 points as the Panthers improved to 10-5 overall and 5-2 in the GLVC.
Saint Joseph's fell to 8-8 and 3-3.
Drury led 33-28 at the half, and after the Pumas answered with the first bucket of the second half, Drury went on a 17-4 run – capped by a 3-pointer from Foster – to open up a 50-37 advantage with 15:05 left.
From there, Saint Joseph's got no closer than seven, and that came on a 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds.
Drury outrebounded its second straight foe, beating the Pumas 41-38 on the boards, led by eight from Douglas Moore, seven from Bundy and six each from Jamal Cummings and Foster.
The Panthers shot 54 percent (31 of 57) from the field for the game, while limiting SJC to 31 percent (21 of 67). Drury made 16 of 24 shots (67 percent) in the second half.
Hesser praised Saint Joseph's for its effort afterward, and asked for more attention to detail from his Panthers, who committed 19 turnovers to 16 by the Pumas.
"On Thursday night (league games) the last two weekends, our attention to detail, our effort, our willingness to be accountable, all the things we preach and talk about … we just did them second nature," Hesser said. "And for 11 years here, we've called the Saturday game 'the toughness game,' because you're not going to feel as good as you do on Thursdays, because you've had some days off, so that's when you've got to get down and grind.
"But I've seen a lot of progress with this group. When we want to run some offense, at times, we look like a team that knows what to do offensively. Our improvement with our bigs is coming along, and we're starting to lock down a little bit defensively."
CJ Hardaway had 22 points and Nick Jeffirs added 13 points to lead the Pumas.
Drury returns to the GLVC road next week for games at Rockhurst on Thursday in Kansas City and at William Jewell on Saturday in Liberty.
"We go on the road next week and we start back to school, so we'll see how that goes," Hesser said. "But we probably need to get back into a routine and see how it goes from there."
