ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Days before the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament started, the Drury Panthers were uncertain if they could participate as COVID-19 had the team quarantined for more than two weeks and left them only seven players available for their opening-round game on Wednesday. Now the Panthers will play for the league championship on Sunday at 1 pm after winning their second-straight postseason game on the road, 79-63, at number two seed Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday.
While Saturday’s game played out differently than Wednesday’s 99-97 win at Southwest Baptist, several similarities carried over, including a strong start and an efficient offensive performance in the second half by the Panthers.
Drury jumped out to a 17-9 lead nine minutes into the contest and owned a 31-26 advantage at halftime.
After the Panthers built an 11-point lead early in the first half, UMSL hit three-pointers on three-straight possessions to pull within two, 43-41, with 14:11 remaining. Drury then responded with a 10-2 run and built the lead to 20 with 2:19 left.
The Panthers shot 66 percent in the second half connecting on 19 of 29 shots, and ended the contest going 31 of 60 from the field for a .517 percentage.
Drury, playing a zone defense for the second game, held UMLS to 43 percent shooting from the floor and forced 18 turnovers.
“We’re getting better at playing the zone in a short time,” said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. “We’re having to play it because of our short bench, but when we separated from them in the second half, we were able to get some deflections and some steals.
Malek (Davis) then hit some big baskets, and Jason (Montgomery) struggled in the first half, but he put his big-boy pants on in the second half and he made some big-boy shots.”
Senior Conley Garrison hit 6 of his 7 three-point attempts to finish with a game-high 18 points. The Bolivar native also had four steals.
“It’s not just his points, but it’s his rebounding, his defense, and his calming influence on the floor,” said Hesser of his First Team All-GLVC selection in Garrison. “We’ve got two sophomores playing, we played four freshmen today, and Conley’s calming influence on our guys is very important to us as well.”
Montgomery finished with 16 points, scoring 14 of them in the second half. Davis chipped in 13, Obi Oklafor had 12, and Victor Nwagabarchoa provided 10.
Missouri-St. Louis was led by Kellen King with 16 points and nine rebounds.
The Panthers added two players that were not in uniform on Wednesday, giving them nine players in Saturday’s game as Riley Naeger returned to the court, as did Devon Barshow.
Drury will appear in the GLVC Championship game for the second time in three years and will take on the winner of the other league semifinal game between eighth-seeded Indianapolis and the fifth seed, Lewis, on Sunday at 1 pm at the Mark Twain Building in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Panthers advanced to the finals with an 11-9 record while dropping the Tritons to 13-6.
