Tevin Foster hit four big free throws down the stretch and Drury held off Quincy for a 79-76 victory over the Hawks in a matchup of the West Division powers Thursday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Kameron Bundy scored 19 points to lead four Panthers in double-figures as Drury improved to 12-6 overall and moved into a tie with the Hawks (13-6, 7-3) for the West Division lead, along with Truman State (15-5, 7-3), which visits The O' on Saturday afternoon.
Quincy held a 37-36 lead at the halftime break before the Panthers surged out of the gates in the second half with a 15-4 run to open up a 10-point advantage (51-41) with 15:19 left. Lucciano Gamiz had seven of his 16 points in the spurt.
Drury still led by 10 (67-57) with 7:48 to play before Quincy responded with an 11-0 run to grab a 68-67 advantage with under five minutes left. It was back and forth from there – in a game that had 19 lead changes – as Quincy grabbed a 76-75 lead with 1:05 remaining on two Joseph Tagarelli free throws.
But Foster was fouled and made both free throws with 53 seconds left to put the Panthers back on top by one, freshman Douglas Moore had a huge blocked shot at the other end, Foster chased down the rebound and drew another foul with 12 seconds remaining.
Foster calmly sank both free throws again to push the lead back to three (79-76), and the Panthers held their breath as a Godson Eneogwe 3-point attempt from the top of the key bounced away and into the arms of Bundy to secure the DU triumph.
"We hung in there … we kind of started to try to duck our heads a little bit after their run, but gives our guys credit," Drury coach Steve Hesser said. "Dougie (Moore) comes up with a great block, we made some buckets and Tevin finished it off at the free-throw line.
"I thought we did a nice job of defending their end of the game play there and running down the rebound and coming out of here with a win. I'm very proud of our guys."
Foster and Joshua Palmer finished with 14 points each for the Panthers, with Palmer grabbing nine rebounds to pace DU on the boards. The Panthers made 9 of 18 3-pointers and shot 46 percent overall (26 of 57) for the game, holding the Hawks to 44 percent (27 of 62).
Drury also went 18 of 20 at the free-throw line, including 8-for-8 from Foster.
Tagarelli had 24 points and Evan McGaughey added 15 points to lead the Hawks, who fell to 0-10 in Springfield since the Panthers joined the GLVC in 2005.
Drury is back home on Saturday to play host to Truman State (15-5, 7-3) in a 3:15 p.m. GLVC tipoff that marks the annual "Fieldhouse Sports Center Youth Sports Appreciation Day." All kids 12-and-under – as with all DU home regular season games – are admitted free, and if they wear a team sports jersey or t-shirt from any youth sports team they play on, Mom and Dad get in free as well. There will be post-game team poster autograph sessions with both the Lady Panthers and Panthers, with the first 200 kids in line to receive a free Fieldhouse/Drury Athletics drawstring basketball backpack.
For tickets, call (417) 873-6389.
