After a strong weekend showing in Kansas City, Drury's basketball Panthers will look for similar success across the state when they visit Maryville (Thursday) and Missouri-St. Louis (Saturday) in Great Lakes Valley Conference action.

Coach Steve Hesser's Panthers improved to 11-4 overall and moved back into first place in the GLVC West with a 5-2 league mark after convincing wins at Rockhurst (74-50) and William Jewell (74-57) last weekend. They'll try to cap off a successful four-game road swing in the division by first visiting Maryville for Thursday's 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

The Saints are 9-7 overall and 4-3 in the GLVC after dropping consecutive games on Saturday at Truman State (74-53) and then on Monday at home to UMSL (86-79), which moved into a first-place tie with Drury in the West at 5-2. The Tritons are 13-4 overall, including 8-0 at home, entering Thursday's game against visiting Missouri S&T before the Panthers visit on Saturday (3 p.m.).

Maryville, which is 7-2 at home this season, is led by 6-4 senior Trae Pemberton's 16.1 points per game. Armon Provo, a 6-1 senior, adds 15.9 points and Max Mischkulnig, a 6-9 sophomore who redshirted last season, adds 10.1 points and 4.7 rebounds for coach Kevin Carroll's Saints. 

Senior forward Cameron Adams, who scored a season-high 31 points in Saturday's win at William Jewell, leads the Panthers with his 17.6 points per game. Junior guard Kameron Bundy adds 16.1 points, while senior forward Mike Nwelue adds 11.6 points and a team-leading 5.4 rebounds.

Drury leads the all-time series with Maryville 10-1, with the one coming in a 73-55 loss at Maryville in February, 2012. The Panthers defeated the Saints 61-58 last year in Springfield.

Thursday's game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM (streamed live at www.jock987.com), and viewed in a free, live webcast at www.maryvillesaints.com/watch.

PANTHER NOTES

*Adams, with his 31-point day at Jewell, pushed his career scoring total to 1,331, moving into 20th place on the all-time DU charts (and past Chris Ijames at 1,317). He needs 11 points to surpass Tony King (1,341 from 1984-88) for 19th place. Adams is also 20th on the all-time DU rebounds list with 560, needing 20 to pass Jim Williams (579 from 1963-67) for 19th place.

*Bundy is now up to 936 points for his three years as a Panther, needing three points to pass Jerry Byrd (938 from 1961-65) for 45th on the DU career charts.

*Senior forward Drake Patterson is 15 for his last 29 from 3-point range. He has started 24 consecutive games, longest current streak on the team. Thursday's game will mark his 111th as a Panther.

*Drury is 27th in the latest Massey Ratings, a computerized ranking system that factors in areas like strength of schedule. GLVC teams occupy three of the top five spots in the nation, with Indianapolis (1), Wisconsin-Parkside (3) and Bellarmine (5). Lewis is 24th and UMSL 42nd. 

*After this St. Louis swing, the Panthers will play seven of their final nine games at home at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, where they lead the GLVC in attendance (1,877 fans per game), have won 32 of their last 33 games and are 46-2 since late in the 2011-12 season. Bellarmine stopped their 32-game home court winning streak with a 62-58 decision in their last appearance at The O' on Jan. 10.