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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The Lewis Flyers took advantage of an off-night offensively by the Drury Panthers and came away with a 72-53 win at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Thursday night to snapping Drury’s six-game winning streak.
The Flyers turned the tables on the Panthers shooting an impressive 10 of 22 from 3-point range and slowly pulled away from Drury holding the Panthers (18-5, 11-4) to a season-low 53 points. Drury shot just 33 percent from the field (19 of 57) while the Flyers finished at 45 percent on 26 of 57 shooting. Drury, one of the nation’s leaders in 3-point shooting, managed just nine long-range makes on 30 attempts.
“It goes beyond shooting,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “We just weren’t there, and that’s my responsibility. Our defense wasn’t what it had been the last six games, and all facets of the game were off and as the game wore on. We got tentative and were standing around and not really wanting the ball.”
Senior forward Cristen Wilson led the way in scoring for the Flyers (13-13, 8-8 in the GLVC) with a game-high 21 points, including 3 of 3 shooting from behind the arc. He also topped Lewis in rebounding with nine as the Flyers won the battle of the boards 41-36.
After falling behind 12-3 in the first five minutes of the game, the Flyers stormed back in the closing minutes of the opening half to take a 33-29 halftime edge as the Panthers committed 11 turnovers in the first twenty minutes of action.
Freshman Conley Garrison paced the Drury scoring with 12 points while fellow freshman Julius Walker added 11 off the bench and sophomore Isaac Johnson posted 10.
With the loss, the Panthers moved into a tie for first place in the GLVC West Division with Truman State with identical 11-4 conference records.