SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The Drury Panthers ended an early season six-game losing streak on Tuesday night as they defeated the Trojans of Hannibal-LaGrange 60-53 at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
After breaking in front of the Trojans by eight points midway through the first half, the Panthers needed a last-second three-point basket at the halftime buzzer to take a 29-27 lead, then never relinquished the lead after intermission to improve to 3-6 on the season.
Clinging to a 56-51 lead with under a minute to play, the Panthers got a seal-the-deal dunk from Brock Wakefield to extend the margin to seven before the final score.
“It does feel good to win,” said Drury head coach Chris Foster. “But I still feel there’s a lot of things we’ve got to do better, but we’re not gonna give the win back.”
In the low-scoring affair, Drury got a pair of ten-point scoring efforts from senior Adam Moore and sophomore Wakefield to lead the way. The Panthers were also able to win the battle on the boards, taking the rebounding edge at 33-32 over Hannibal-LaGrange.
“It’s good to see us more active,” added Foster. “But the challenge we have is getting all five guys active at the same time. There’s certainly a lot of things for us to still clean up.”
Jacob Staton, with 16 points, topped the Trojan scoring effort, as they dropped to 5-5 on the season.
The Panthers will next resume play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference on Saturday when they host Quincy in a 3 pm contest at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
