SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Drury Panthers struggled to find a consistent shooting touch on Thursday night, while the visiting Saints of Maryville found the range and came away with a 74-57 win over the Panthers at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
The Saints were strong from the start, pulling away from the Panthers in the opening 10 minutes, building a 17-point lead. But Drury stormed back with an 18-7 run over the final ten minutes of the half to sneak within 34-28 at intermission.
Things started well out of the break for the Panthers, and they trimmed the Maryville lead to four points at 35-31, but again the Saints didn’t fold, and a quick 9-0 surge moved them back in front by eleven and Drury was unable to battle back.
“We didn’t have it tonight, maybe in some spurts, but not near enough,” said Drury head Coach Chris Foster. “We gotta find a way to get these guys to compete hard for 40 minutes.”
Freshman Logan Applegate topped the Drury scoring with 18 points. Grad student Preston Cook and junior Quenton Shelton added ten points each.
The Saints got 18 points from Jaeden Smith, all coming of six made three-point attempts.
The loss drops the Panthers to 7-16 on the season and now 3-12 in Great Lakes Valley Conference action. The Saints emerged 14-10 overall and 7-9 in league play.
The Panthers remain at home for their next outing, a 1 pm showdown with Missouri-St. Louis, Saturday, February 11th, at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
