ST. LOUIS, Mo.— The Drury Panthers won their seventh straight game with a 73-62 win at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday.
Drury, also winners of nine of their last 11 games, raised their record to 16-10 and 10-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while UMSL fell to 18-8 and 9-7 in the league.
Drury led 33-26 at halftime, then opened the second half on a 7-0 run and held off the Tritons down the stretch. UMSL pulled within six points of the lead twice in the last eight minutes, but the Panthers responded each time to close out the game and sweep the regular season series from the Tritons after beating UMSL 84-68 in Springfield on Feb. 9.
Kamau Kinder led the Panthers with 21 points as the junior from Festus, Missouri went 8 of 11 from the field and 3 for 3 from behind the three-point arc. Conley Garrison added 20 points while Andrew Ballock contributed 15.
“I’m proud of our guys, and I thought we had some really good efforts,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “It’s not always the guys that score the points that should get credit…sometimes it’s the guy setting the screen, getting a rebound, or making a great defensive play, and I thought this was a total team effort by our whole squad tonight.”
Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field as the Panthers made 26 of 47 attempts for 55 percentage while UMSL went 22 for 43 (51 percent). Drury connected on 10 of their 17 three-point attempts while the Tritons went 7 for 17 from behind the arc.
Jose Grubbs led UMSL as he came off the bench to score 15 points.
The Panthers remain on the road for a game at Maryville on Saturday as they take on the Saints for a 3 p.m. tipoff in St. Louis.
