Kameron Bundy scored a game-high 23 points and Mike Nwelue scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and No. 6 Drury pulled away down the stretch for a 79-66 victory over Southwest Baptist in the annual Bank of Bolivar "Highway 13 Cat Fight" rivalry game Tuesday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Bundy, the returning All-Great Lakes Valley Conference First Team Player and a Preseason All-America selection, scored 19 points after halftime as the Panthers rallied from a 34-32 deficit at the break to win their third straight game in the series.

"I just want to say thanks to our students and our crowd for providing us some energy when we really needed it in the second half," Drury coach Steve Hesser said, as his Panthers won their 27th consecutive game at The O', this time before 2,284 fans.

Cameron Adams added 14 points in 20 foul-plagued minutes for the Panthers, who hit just 12 of 26 shots in the first half (46 percent), but made 16 of 30 after halftime (53 percent) to finish at an even 50 percent (28 of 56).

Hesser in particular singled out the first-half contributions from the likes of freshmen Trevor Clay and Drew Moore for giving the Panthers a spark off the bench.

"I'd just like to say about our young cats ... we'd have been down 8, 10, 12 points in the first half if it wasn't for our young guys," Hesser said. "Trevor and Drew gave us great minutes, and I thought Deon (Pettigrew) gave us some great minutes in the first half.

"We wouldn't be sitting here with a smile on our face now if we didn't get contributions from them in the first half."

The 6-foot-7 Moore was 2-for-2 from 3-point range and joined Clay and Pettigrew in scoring six points each as that trio combined to make 6 of 10 shots, including 4 of 6 3-pointers.

Moore hit a huge trey in the second half to start Drury's late breakaway. His 3-pointer with 8:09 left stretched the Panthers' lead to 56-47, part of an 11-0 run by Drury that was completed with a Nwelue layup at 5:54 to give DU a 60-47 advantage.

SBU would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Daymond Cowlah led the Bearcats with 16 points while Menas Stephens had 10 points and 15 rebounds. Afam Obuwelu added 12 points off the bench for the Bearcats, in their first year under coach Clark Sheehy.

The double-double was the first in the Drury career for Nwelue, who transferred to DU prior to the 2013-14 season from NAIA Southwestern Assemblies of God.

"Mike was the player of the game in my opinion," Hesser said. "He kept us in it with his offense and rebounding in the first half, and just kept rebounding the basketball. We didn't have a lot of guys getting rebounds, and Mike was kind of cleaning up the mess there."

Drury was outrebounded 35-32, but forced 22 turnovers by the Bearcats while committing just 16. 

Bundy had six and Lucciano Gamiz added five of Drury's 18 assists.

The Panthers return to action on Friday when they play host to Peru State (7 p.m.) on Service Appreciation Night. All police, Highway Patrol, fire, EMT and Armed Forces members past and present - as well as their families - will be admitted free of charge by showing an ID at the ticket window.

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