EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Southern Indiana got a basket and a made free throw from center Josh Price with one second remaining to give the Screaming Eagles a 91-90 win over Drury in Evansville, Indiana, on Saturday.
The Panthers had their four-game winning streak snapped and fell to 9-9, while Southern Indiana raised their record to 11-3 with the win.
Drury trailed by nine in the first half and but ended the first 20 minutes on a 12-0 run, capped by a three-pointer just before the buzzer by Malek Davis.
The Panthers led through most of the second half, but the lead went back and forth in the final four minutes. Conley Garrison gave Drury the lead with 42 seconds left when he was fouled on a three-point try and connected on all three foul shots.
Southern Indiana gained possession with 13 seconds left but missed a 20-foot shot that would have tied the game. Drury appeared to have the rebound, but the ball was deflected out of bounds off of the Panthers with three seconds remaining.
USI threw the inbounds pass to Price at the low post, and the 6-9 senior spun around a defender to score at the rim, and an official called a foul on Drury’s Obi Okafor on the basket. Price, the league’s leading rebounder and third-leading scorer, connected on the free throw to put the Eagles up 91-90.
Drury’s length-of-the-floor pass was knocked away, and the Panthers could not get a shot away before time expired.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” said head coach Steve Hesser. “They battled. It was unfortunate at the end, but where this team has come from a few weeks ago to now is just unbelievable. I’m just really proud of them.”
Drury shot 57 percent from the field in the game, hitting 33 of their 58 shots. The Panthers went 9 for 22 from three-point range and 15 for 17 from the free-throw line. Southern Indiana hit 33 of their 69 shots for 48 percent while going 12 for 24 from three-point range.
“We moved ball the well and ran them out of their man-defense,” added Hesser. “They started switching defenses, and that’s the first team we’ve played that’s tried to that. It didn’t bother at all, and we moved the ball and moved players to spots that were able to make shots. They just made one more play than us, and that’s all I can say.”
Malek Davis led the Panthers with 22 points, while Conley Garrison added 17 points and six assists. Obi Okafor scored a career-high 18 and had four blocked shots.
Mateo Rivera had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Southern Indiana, while Jelani Simmons added 20 points. Price finished with 16.
Drury returns home to play Indianapolis on Thursday at 7:45 pm in the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
