SPRINGFIELD – Two made free throws by John Williams with eight seconds left and a blocked shot by Tevin Foster on a three-point attempt at the buzzer helped Drury fight off Rockhurst for a 70-68 win in front of an Overflow the O’ crowd of 3,017 at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Saturday.
Drury improved to 13-4 and 6-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while Rockhurst dropped to 10-7 and 4-5 in league play.
Rockhurst jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the Panthers responded to go up 33-30 at halftime.
Drury built a nine-point lead, 63-54, with 6:29 remaining before the Hawks mounted a rally. Rockhurst had a chance to tie or win the game with a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left but Foster stripped the ball away from Rockhurst’s Travis House as he squared up to shoot as time expired.
“First of all, this was a great environment for the Lady Panthers and our men’s team to play in,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “This was a big-time atmosphere.
“We weren’t perfect today, but I thought our guys stepped up at times when, in the last few weeks, they may have put their dauber down and stopped competing. So today was an improvement and I was proud of that.”
Williams led the Panthers with 17 points going 6 for 7 from the field and 5 for 5 from the free throw line. Foster added 11 points for Drury.
The Panthers shot 53 percent from the field going 27 for 51 while holding Rockhurst to 42 percent and 22 for 52 shooting. Drury had a 37-25 advantage on the boards.
Kaleb Warner led Rockhurst with a game-high 19 points.
Drury returns to action on Thursday with a conference game at Truman State. Tipoff is 7:30 p.m. in Kirksville, Missouri.
