JV Long hit a jumper with 2.8 seconds left to lift Cameron to a 72-70 victory over nationally fifth-ranked Drury in the Elliott Lodging Properties/Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Friday afternoon at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Long's bucket from 15 feet pushed the Aggies to 4-2 overall and kept the Panthers (3-1) from coming out victorious after a furious comeback. Drury (3-1) trailed by 16 points (30-14) at one point in late in the first half before cutting the deficit to 34-22 at the break.

"Let's give Cameron some credit ... they came here in the first half, and there was no question they were the tougher team," Drury coach Steve Hesser said. "They played harder and they played tougher, and as a result, we found ourselves in a hole at halftime. To our credit, we found a way to climb back into there here at home ... the bottom line is 'go rebound the basketball.' In our last three games, we've given up 17, 15 and 17 offensive boards. Going to tell you, there's not going to be many people you have a chance to beat if you don't clean up the backboards. We've got some guys not doing it, and maybe we need to do a better job of coaching it."

A strong start to the second half saw the Panthers finally catch Cameron at 51-all with 8:47 to go on two Tevin Foster free throws, and it was back-and-forth from there. Cameron pushed its lead to four (68-64) with 1:08 left on a pair of Cameron Lee free throws, but the Panthers answered with a three-point play off a drive by Kameron Bundy at the other end to cut it back to one.

But Christian Crockett of Cameron made two free throws with 21 seconds left to move the Aggies lead back to three at 70-67 before a Foster three-point play knotted it at 70-all with 14 seconds to play.

The Aggies milked the clock down to the three-second mark when Long hit the winner. After a timeout, the Panthers saw Bundy's deep attempt drew rim, but didn't fall.

Bundy and Foster finished with 21 points each to lead Drury as the only two to reach double-figures.

Lee led four Aggies in double-figures with 15 points, while Crockett and Jamaal Brantley had 12 points each and Deondre Ray added 10.

Cameron claimed a 41-36 rebounding advantage, led by eight boards from Aleksandar Malinic and Crockett.

"Undersized doesn't mean undermanned," Hesser said. "This is the biggest team we've had since I've been at Drury, and we've never had this kind of (rebounding) issue before.

"We gave up a couple of critical (rebounds) late. We get those, come down and get some things done, and the results might have been different. But we didn't and they weren't, so give Cameron credit for getting it done."

The Panthers will take on Union (5-0) - an 84-53 winner over Truman State in Friday's first game - at 3:15 p.m. Saturday in the Thanksgiving Classic.