Kameron Bundy

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

Panthers, Hawks To Battle For GLVC West Lead Thursday At The O'

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

Panthers, Hawks To Battle For GLVC West Lead Thursday At The O'

Kameron Bundy
Thursday's GLVC West showdown between division leader Quincy and second-place Drury at The O', at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (11-6, 6-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play host to Quincy (13-5, 7-2) in a 7:45 p.m. tipoff Thursday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center (capacity 2,950).

*RADIO/TV/INTERNET: The games can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM, and online at www.radiospringfield.com. A free, live webcast is available at www.jewellcardinals.com  as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN). It will also be televised live by Mediacom Connections 22.

*PROMOTIONS: Thursday marks the annual American Cancer Society/NABC "Suits and Sneakers" game for the Panthers, who will wear tennis shoes as part of their attire in conjunction with the NABC's national quest to raise cancer awareness. All proceeds from the sale of Andy's Frozen Custard ($3) cups at the south concession stand will benefit ACS. Halftime festivities will include recognition of the two-time defending GLVC champion Drury Baseball program, which will hold a 3-point shootout as part of its annual internal "Cary Challenge" contest. 

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury had its momentum temporarily halted on Saturday, with an 87-84 loss at William Jewell. The Panthers, with wins in tsix of their last eight games, will look for no better opportunity to get it back than a return to the friendly confines of the O'Reilly Center for seven of their nine second-half GLVC games, starting with a visit from West leader Quincy. The Panthers are 9-0 against the Hawks in Springfield in the Coach Steve Hesser Era, including a thrilling 90-88 overtime win last season on Kameron Bundy's 40-foot "Bundy Bomb" at the OT buzzer that would ultimately earn GEICO National Play of the Year honors. Bundy is coming off a career-high 30 points at Jewell, where backcourt mate Tevin Foster added 21 points as the Panthers had plenty of offense, but not enough defensive stops down the stretch to mount a comeback against a Cardinals team that had won just one league game coming in, but shot 52 percent Saturday against the Panthers. Bundy averages 18.8 points per game, Foster adds 13.9 points and Joshua Palmer contributes 10.9 points per game to lead the Panthers.

*SCOUTING QUINCY: Veteran coach Marty Bell returned a veteran Hawks squad this season, with all five starters and nine letterwinners back from a 12-16 finisher of a year ago. The Hawks lead the GLVC in scoring (87.1 points per game) as well as assists (17.67), steals (9.61) and 3-pointser made (9.56 per game). Quincy has won eight of its last nine, with the only setback in the stretch an 81-79 loss at nationally Top 10-ranked Bellarmine two weeks ago - which followed a 96-92 win at Southern Indiana, perennially one of the league's toughest places to steal a victory. The Hawks are playing just their seventh road game of the season after posting, to date, an 11-1 mark this season at their Pepsi Arena. Joseph Tagarelli, a 6-5 junior juco (Kirkwood) transfer, leads the Hawks with his 16.9 points per game, while 6-8 junior Evan McGaughey adds 13.4 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with Quincy 27-16. The Panthers have won six straight against the Hawks, with the last two coming in overtime - last season's "Bundy Bomb" finish, which followed an incredible, turnaround 3-pointer by Quincy's Godson Eneogwe with two seconds left in OT, and a 92-87 win for the Panthers in Quincy in extra time in 2014. 

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 319 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,538 points in his Drury career, good for 15th place on the all-time Panther scoring charts.The senior from Nixa needs 22 points to move past former DU great Gail Fredrick (1,559 from 1965-69) and into 14th place. Bundy has scored in double-figures in 16 of 17 games this season and 21 of his last 22 dating back to last year after being held to nine at Parkside on January 9th. Bundy has reached double-digits in 66 of his 75 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 31 games of scoring 20 or more points. His 30-point outburst at William Jewell last Saturday was a career high, although, Bundy did score 40 points in an exhibition win over Missouri Baptist to begin this season.

*HESSER REACHES 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, secured career collegiate coaching victory No. 250 with the Tarleton State triumph in Las Vegas on December 19th, and now owns a 255-94 mark (.733 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes a 91-23 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 5-2 this season in games decided by five points or less, continuing his outstanding trend in that regard: In 12 seasons, Hesser's Panthers are 65-28 (.703 win percentage) in that scenario, including 28-9 (.775) since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

*ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will play host to Truman State in a 3:15 p.m. tipoff Saturday at The O' on "Fieldhouse Sports Center Youth Sports Appreciation Day." Any youngsters who wear a team jersey or t-shirt from any youth sports team or program will have their parents admitted for free as well (12-and-under are always free for regular season games at The O'). There will be a post-game, team poster autograph signing party on the Panther Deck after both the Lady Panthers (1 p.m.) and Panther games, with the first 100 kids in line for each game to receive a Fieldhouse/Drury basketball drawstring backpack. Saturday also marks the annual Congenital Heart Defect Awareness game, with proceeds of the sale of the Andy's Frozen Custard cups ($3) to benefit CHD Awareness through the American Heart Association.
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Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

G
6' 2"
Senior
Guard
Joshua Palmer

#31 Joshua Palmer

F
6' 7"
Junior
Forward
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard

Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

6' 2"
Senior
Guard
G
Joshua Palmer

#31 Joshua Palmer

6' 7"
Junior
Forward
F
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard
G