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The Drury Panthers broke away from William Jewell in the second half of their Great Lakes Valley Conference showdown Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Event Center and claimed an important 86-67 win on Overflow the O’ day in front on 3,178.
Freshman center Julius Walker led the way for Drury with career highs in points and rebounds with 17 and eight.
While Drury, during most of the season had relied on long-range shooting and an up-tempo offense to win games, this time took their game inside against William Jewell, outscoring their visitors 40-20 in the paint while hitting just 7 of 24 for 29 percent from beyond the three-point line.
“We knew we were gonna have a game when we didn’t shoot the three well, and it just happened to be today,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “Julius (Walker’s) game is getting better, and then Doug Moore in the last two games has stepped up and we get 29 points from them inside and that was huge.”
The teams traded a handful of lead changes in the second half before the Panthers pulled away on several scoring runs before settling on their largest margin of the contest in the final score.
Drury (14-4, 6-3) held a 25-12 lead midway through the first half before the Cardinals (16-5, 6-5) rallied to briefly gain a one-point edge at 37-36, with a late 3-pointer by Issac Johnson giving the Panthers a 39-37 halftime margin.
Walker’s 17 points led six Drury players in double-figures with Conley Garrison, Kamau Kinder and Douglas Moore scoring 12 each, with Cam Potts adding 11 and Johnson tossing in 10.
Patrick Whelan led William Jewell scoring a game-high 19.
The Panthers are back at home on Thursday when they host Truman State at 7:45 p.m.
