SPRINGFIELD — Tevin Foster led five Panthers in double-figures with 20 points as Drury wrapped up a fourth straight Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division title and sixth in seven years with a 95-76 triumph over Missouri Science & Technology on Senior Night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
The Panthers, with their seventh straight victory (current high in the league), improved to 19-7 overall and finished 14-4 in the GLVC, two games ahead of both Quincy and Truman State, which beat the Hawks 83-82 in Quincy on Thursday's final night of the regular season.
Drury won for the 14th time in its last 17 games by breaking away from the Miners (8-19, 4-14) midway through the first half. Trailing 10-6 over the first three minutes, Drury went on a 23-3 run over the next 4 minutes and 16 seconds to grab a 29-13 advantage after back-to-back treys from senior Kameron Bundy and were never really threatened from there.
The Panthers led 53-34 at the half before playing the Miners even (42-all) in the second half.
Bundy, in his final game at The O', added 19 points, eight assists, four rebounds, two steals and a block in 33 minutes. In his four seasons as a Panther, DU won four GLVC West titles, an NCAA-II championship, two Midwest Regional titles and two GLVC Championships.
Thursday's win was the 99th Bundy has been a part of since joining the Panthers.
Joshua Palmer had 18 points, Jamal Cummings had 11 points and Drew Moore added 10 points for the Panthers, while senior Lucciano Gamiz had eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
"It was a fitting game to end it here for two fine seniors," Drury coach Steve Hesser said. "And obviously, with Kameron Bundy being a four year guy … what a great way to go out in his last game at home."
For Drury, it was also a case of sweet revenge. The Panthers were drubbed 74-56 by S&T in Rolla on December 12th, the Miners' first win over Drury since 1996 and a streak that covered 21 games. In that game, S&T beat the Panthers a whopping 47-31 on the boards, including a 22-3 advantage in offensive rebounds.
On Thursday at The O', Drury was outrebounded 13-8 on the offensive glass, but made up for it with a 30-17 edge in defensive rebounds for a final 38-30 advantage in total.
Douglas Moore grabbed eight boards, while Palmer and Gamiz were next with seven each.
"I'm really proud of the growth of our team this year," Hesser said. "It's been unbelievable. Where we were when we started, to where we are now … they've made such great progress. I'm extremely proud of this bunch."
Drury shot a season-best 62 percent from the field (39 of 63), making 18 of 26 shots (69 percent) after halftime. The Panthers limited the Miners to 39 percent shooting (25 of 65) for the game.
B.J. McLaughlin had 25 points and Rokas Paulauskas added 14 points and 11 rebounds for S&T.
The Panthers are now idle until the GLVC Championship post-season tourney quarterfinals on Friday, March 4 in St. Charles at Family Arena, where Drury – also as the No. 2 seed – claimed its third GLVC Championship last season. Drury, No. 10 in the NCAA-II Midwest Region rankings this week, will likely need a deep run in the conference tournament to make the NCAA-II field for a fourth straight year.
But, it should be noted, the Panthers were in the same boat last year … and won three games to gain the automatic NCAA-II bid.
"Now we'll go to St. Charles and see what happens," Hesser said. "It's do or die now."
