After reeling off four consecutive victories on the road around the state, the Drury Panthers will look to stay hot when they play host to Truman State in a Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division showdown Thursday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Tipoff will be approximately 8 p.m. between Coach Steve Hesser's Panthers (13-4, a division-leading 7-2 in the GLVC West) and Truman State's Bulldogs, who are 14-5 overall and tied for second place in the West at 6-3.

It's the American Cancer Society's "Black Out Cancer Night," with fans of both teams encouraged to wear black to support the ACS cause to raise awareness of the deadly disease. In addition, as part of the NABC's Coaches vs. Cancer initiative, coaching staffs from both teams will be participating in the "Suits and Sneakers" promotion to help further raise awarenesss.

The Panthers are coming off one of the most stunning victories in the program's history, having rallied from 22 points down with 16 minutes left in regulation to force overtime, then defeat Missouri-St. Louis 80-76 on the road Saturday behind 28 points from junior guard Kameron Bundy. The reigning GLVC Player of the Week scored all of his points after halftime after opening the game missing his first 13 shots. He made 9 of his last 13, including two 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 Panthers run in overtime that sealed it.

Bundy and the Panthers will take on a Truman team that's led by the GLVC's leading scorer, 6-4 senior Seth Jackson (20.8 points per game). Reed Mells, a 5-11 senior, adds 13.5 points for the Bulldogs of first-year head coach Chris Foster. Truman, which has won three straight entering the DU contest, leads the GLVC in 3-pointers made per game (9.9), turnover margin (plus 6.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.70). The Bulldogs average 81.7 points while limiting foes to just 64.2 points, ranking second behind top-ranked Indianapolis in average victory margin (plus 17.5 points per game).

Bundy leads the Panthers in scoring with his 17.1 points per game (sixth in the GLVC), while senior forward Cameron Adams (16.9 ppg) is ninth in the league. Adams ranks second in the GLVC in FG percentage (.657), while DU senior forward Mike Nwelue is fifth (.614).

Drury leads the all-time series with Truman 8-4, including an 88-78 victory in Kirksville last season in the first matchup between the schools as GLVC members. 

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


PANTHER NOTES

*Truman is second in the league in 3-point FG percentage (.395) as a team; Drury leads the GLVC in 3-point FG percentage defense (.314 percent). The Panthers held league-leading UMSL to a 6-for-18 effort from behind the arc in last week's victory in St. Louis. Drury ranks second behind TSU in turnover margin (plus 4.59).

*Adams ranks 19th on the all-time DU scoring charts with 1,354 career points, needing 58 points to move past Jasen Fronabarger (1,411 from 1995-99) for 18th place.

*Bundy, after scoring 50 points in his two games in St. Louis last week, has pushed his career total to 986 points, ranking him 43rd all-time at DU and leaving him just 14 points shy of the magical 1,000-career point barrier.

*Drury will play its first home game since having a school-record, 32-game winning streak at The O' snapped with a 62-58 loss to No. 6 Bellarmine on January 10. The Panthers have won 46 of their last 48 games at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

*Senior guard/forward Drake Patterson has played in 89 Drury victories (in 112 games) over his four-year Panthers career, putting him within reach of the school record of 99 held by Ian Carter and Mike Blakeslee.

*The Panthers defensively have forced a total of 99 turnovers by their opponents over the last five games, an average of just under 20 per contest. Drury has not turned the ball over more times than its opponent now for 14 consecutive games and has equal or fewer turnovers than its foe in 16 of 17 games this season.

*The Panthers will play host to Quincy on Saturday in the annual "Great Southern Bank Throwback Day" promotion. Drury is hosting a "Fan Appreciation Concert" on Friday night at The O' featuring Boogie Wonderland from Kansas City playing 70s and 80s disco, funk and soul music starting at 8 p.m. The concert is free to Drury season ticket-holders, faculty/staff and students with ID and Great Southern employees with ID. Cost for the general public is $5, with that including a ticket for the purchaser to Saturday's DU women's/men's doubleheader vs. Quincy.