Tevin Foster

Men's Basketball Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

Panthers, Miners To Battle In GLVC Play Saturday In Rolla

Men's Basketball Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

Panthers, Miners To Battle In GLVC Play Saturday In Rolla

Saturday's matchup between the Panthers and Missouri S&T in Rolla, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (5-2, 2-0 in the GLVC) will play at Missouri Science & Technology (4-5, 2-0) in a 3 p.m. tipoff Saturday at the Bulmann Multipurpose Building in Rolla on the campus of S&T.

*RADIO/TV/INTERNET: The game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM, and online at www.radiospringfield.com. A free, live webcast will be available at www.minerathletics.com/watch on the GLVC Sports Network.

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury bounced back from an 0-2 showing in its own Thanksgiving Classic to open Great Lakes Valley Conference play with road wins at Missouri-St. Louis (60-51) and Maryville (82-78) last week before taking the past several days off from games for final exams. Kameron Bundy shared game scoring honors with Lucciano Gamiz with 16 points at UMSL and poured in 26 points (including a 6-of-7 showing from 3-point range) to earn GLVC Player of the Week honors. The consensus preseason All-America guard from Nixa is averaging 20.3 points to lead the Panthers, while sophomore guard Tevin Foster is averaging 16.7 points and Gamiz 9.9 points. Drury ranks 11th nationally in 3-point FG percentage at .432 and 30th in FT percentage at .762.

*SCOUTING S&T: The Miners of coach Jim Glash have won three straight after a 1-5 start, including a sweep of Maryville (83-73) at home and UMSL on the road (85-81) to share the early GLVC West lead with the Panthers. S&T came from 17 points down to steal the road win over the Tritons, and then posted a 104-91 home win over Blackburn on Tuesday, placing six in double-figures and making their final 33 free throws of the game (and all 26 in the second half) in a 38-for-39 effort at the line. The Miners are still running and gunning under Glash, averaging 80.1 points per game (while giving up 83.1 ppg), and making 7.8 3-pointers per contest (shooting .347 on trey attempts). S&T leads the GLVC and ranks second nationally in grabbing offensive rebounds (17 per contest). B.J. McLaughlin, a 6-5 senior, averages 14.6 points to lead the Miners, who receive a team-high 8.7 rebounds from 6-8 junior Rokas Paulauskas. 

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with S&T 76-32, including a 20-0 mark since the teams joined the GLVC in 2005-06. The Panthers have won 21 straight from the Miners, dating back to then-UMR's 98-69 win on November 16, 1996 in Rolla.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 142 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,361 in his Drury career, good for 20th on the Panthers' all-time charts after he surpassed former DU great Tony King (1,341 from 1984-88) with his 26-point effort on Saturday at Maryville. The former Nixa High School standout needs 51 points to pass Jasen Fronabarger (1,411 from 1995-99) for 19th place on the list. Bundy has scored in double-figures in all seven games this season and 12 straight games dating back to last year. Bundy has reached double-digits in 57 of his 65 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 28 games of scoring 20 or more points. Interestingly, he has yet to have a 30-point game (career high of 28 points against Parkside in the GLVC tourney last season); although, Bundy did score 40 in an exhibition win over Missouri Baptist to begin this season.

*HESSER SEEKING WIN NUMBER 250: Drury head coach Steve Hesser, now in his 12th season at the helm of the Panthers and the winningest coach in the program's history, is 249-90 (a .737 winning percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes an 85-19 record dating back to the start of the 2012-13 season, when the Panthers went on to finish 31-4 and claim their first NCAA-II national championship. His DU squads have also captured two of the past three GLVC Championships and made three consecutive NCAA-II tourney appearances in that stretch. Hesser's Panthers are 3-1 this season in games decided by five points or less, continuing his outstanding trend in that regard: In 12 seasons, Hesser's Panthers are 63-27 (.701 win percentage) in that scenario, including 26-8 (.774) since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

*ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will head to Las Vegas for games December 18-19 against a pair of Top 10-ranked national powers in No. 6 Angelo State (9-0) and No. 8 Tarleton State (7-1) in the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic. The Panthers will return from their NCAA-II mandatory "Life In Balance" break to play Central Christian at The O' on January 2 before diving back into GLVC play at Lewis on January 7 and Wisconsin-Parkside on January 9. The latter will be televised nationally on the American Sports Network (ASN) with a 7 p.m. tipoff time. The Panthers will play 9 of their final 13 GLVC games at The O' in January and February.
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Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

G
6' 2"
Senior
Guard
Lucciano Gamiz

#20 Lucciano Gamiz

G
6' 3"
Senior
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard

Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

6' 2"
Senior
Guard
G
Lucciano Gamiz

#20 Lucciano Gamiz

6' 3"
Senior
G
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard
G