Coach Steve Hesser's Drury basketball Panthers will close out their home schedule before the new year by playing host to Central Christian in a 7 p.m. non-conference tipoff Tuesday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

The Panthers, ranked fourth nationally in last week's NABC/Division II Top 25 Poll, are 4-1 after picking up victories over Cameron (78-71) and Missouri Western (81-71) this past weekend in the Doubletree Hotel/Houlihan's Thanksgiving Classic at The O', where they pushed their home-court winning streak to 30 games with the triumphs.

Central Christian is an NAIA member based in McPherson, Kan. The Tigers are coming off an 82-71 loss at NCAA-II Southern Nazarene on Saturday and will take a 7-1 record into a home game with Bethel College tonight (Monday) before visiting the Panthers. Michael Gholston, a 6-5 sophomore, had 21 points and seven rebounds and Daniel Nwosuh, a 6-1 sophomore, added 18 points for CCC in the loss at Nazarene. The Tigers are in their sixth year under head coach Tony Romero.

The Panthers are 3-0 all-time against Central Christian.

Senior forward Cameron Adams is averaging 18.8 points and 6.4 rebounds and junior guard Kameron Bundy is adding 18.2 points for the Panthers, who receive 12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game from senior forward Mike Nwelue.

Drury will honor its top student-athlete academic achievers at halftime, as well as pay tribute to retiring KY3 Sports Director Ned Reynolds during a ceremony at Tuesday's contest. The Panthers will open Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff Saturday at Missouri Science and Technology in Rolla before closing out the first semester schedule with games December 18-19 in Las Vegas against Cal State-Bernadino and Tarleton State in the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic.