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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— With sophomore Conley Garrison and junior Kamau Kinder raining three-point shots, the Drury Panthers held off Missouri-St. Louis 84-68 and made it five wins in a row while improving to 14-10 overall for the season and 8-5 in Great Lakes Valley Conference action in front of 2,741 at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Saturday.
The loss ended a six-game winning streak for the Tritons who fell for only the fifth time this season and now stand 18-5 and 9-4 in conference play.
Garrison hit 6 of 10 three-point shots and finished with a team-high 26 points while Kinder also hit 6 of 10 three-point attempts and finished with a career-best 22 points.
“UMSL really tries to guard you, and you have to be disciplined enough to have multiple actions each time down the floor,” said Steve Hesser, Drury head coach. “When we had a little hitch, we didn’t go from action to action to action.”
After falling behind the Tritons 14-13 early in the first half, the Panthers went on a 22-2 scoring binge to move in front by 19 before settling for a 37-24 halftime lead. Drury hit on 8 of 18 three-point attempts in the half to fuel the run.
For the game, the Panthers were 15 of 29 from long range and shot 60 percent from the floor on 31 of 52 shots. The Tritons connected on 27 of 49 for 55 percent. Drury shared the ball well finishing with 27 assists on the 31 shots made. Missouri-St. Louis held a slight edge in rebounding at 26-20.
“About two weeks ago we came together and said we were a family and if you are a family out there, then you get a guy open and you give up the ball – and now we’ve had 57 assists the last two games, and you see the result,” added Hesser.
With the win, Hesser moved into a tie for most all-time coaching victories at Drury University with 316, matching the late A.L. Weiser, and the Panthers remain alone in sixth place in the GLVC with five games remaining in the regular season.
The Panthers are back in action, Saturday, February 16 when they play at Missouri S&T in a scheduled 3 pm contest.
The Panthers are back in action, Saturday hosting Missouri-St. Louis in a scheduled 3 pm start for Overflow the O’ Day at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
