The Drury Panthers advanced to the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament with a 79-72 win over Southern Indiana on Friday at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
The Panthers improved to 21-6 while Southern Indiana dropped to 20-11.
Drury recovered from an 11-point deficit in the game’s opening moments as the sixth-seeded Screaming Eagles started the game with an 11-0 lead.
The Panthers, seeded third in the tournament, worked their way back in the game and seized the halftime lead 36-34. Drury outscored Southern Indiana 16-7 in the first six minutes of the second half to give the Panthers a double-digit lead.
“Southern Indiana started the game and hit us with a couple of haymakers, but I thought we showed a lot of toughness,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “Isaac Johnson kind of saved us with his shooting in the first half and John Williams gave us some great hustle plays.”
Drury led by 14, 67-53, with 7:13 remaining but Southern Indiana charged back and pulled within four with 58 seconds left. Kamau Kinder responded, though, as he buried a three-pointer to push the Panthers lead back to seven with 30 seconds remaining.
Conley Garrison led Drury with 21 points on 6 of 8 shooting. The freshman from Bolivar went 5 for 6 from three-point range. Isaac Johnson had 13 points, Allen Billinger chipped in 12, and Julius Walker added 10 points as four Panthers scored in double-figures.
Julius Rajala and Marcellous Washington both had 22 points to lead Southern Indiana.
Both teams shot better than 50 percent for the game. The Panthers were 26 for 49, hitting 53 percent of their shots. The Screaming Eagles connected on 52 percent, going 25 for 48. Drury made 13 of their 20 attempts from the field in the second half to stretch their lead.
“Offensively, we made some adjustments in the second half,” said Hesser. “We were on top of each other in the first half, and we got more spread out in the second half. I thought Kamau did an outstanding job against their zone. He caught it, made some plays, and we got some easy baskets off of it.”
The Panthers converted on 15 of 18 free throws while Southern Indiana went 15 of 21 from the line.
The Panthers advance to the GLVC semifinals and will play second-seeded Truman State on Saturday. The Bulldogs blasted Lewis 103-56 in their quarterfinal game. Game time on Saturday is 6 p.m. at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
