Thursday's matchup between the Drury Panthers and Lewis Flyers, at a glance ...
*THE MATCHUP:Â Drury (7-4, 2-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play at Lewis (9-3, 1-1) in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff Thursday at Neil Carey Arena in Romeoville, Ill.*RADIO/TV/INTERNET:Â The games can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM, and online at www.radiospringfield.com. A free, live webcast is available at lewisflyers.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network.*ABOUT THE PANTHERS:Â Drury will try to push its winning streak to three games when Coach Steve Hesser's Panthers resume GLVC play after the holiday break with a tough road trip to Lewis on Thursday and Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday. The Panthers went 1-1 in their trip to Las Vegas for the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic just before Christmas, falling 92-80 to No. 6 and unbeaten Angelo State before bouncing back the next day to beat No. 7 Tarleton State 68-67, then tuned up for a return to GLVC action by downing Central Christian 72-43 in a non-conference game last Saturday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. The Panthers will be looking for a good road trip to stay in the thick of things in what has become an ultra-competitive GLVC West race in the early going, with upstart Missouri S&T at the top of the standings with a 3-0 mark and owning a victory over Drury in the pre-Christmas set of three league tests. Drury will play nine of its final 13 league games at home after this trip, which includes a national TV date (on the American Sports Network) on Saturday at Parkside. Senior preseason All-America guard Kameron Bundy leads the Panthers with his 19.5 points per game, while sophomore guard Tevin Foster adds 14.3 points per contest. Sophomore forward Drew Moore is averaging 7.5 points and a team-leading 5.3 rebounds per game, but has averaged 13.3 points and 8.7 rebounds over his last three games, which includes his first two collegiate double-doubles in the Panthers' past two contests.*SCOUTING LEWIS: Coach Scott Trost's Flyers
are 9-3 overall, but come into the game off a 75-55 drubbing at NAIA nationally second-ranked Saint Francis last Saturday, in which the Flyers shot just 28 percent and trailed 43-27 at halftime as sophomore star Max Strus suffered through a 2-for-14 shooting night and finished with just nine points. Strus, a 6-6 sophomore and last year's GLVC Freshman of the Year, averages a GLVC-best 23.8 points and adds 8.9 rebounds per game and raised eyebrows nationally with a 52-point outburst against Northwood in late November in which he went 12-for-14 from 3-point range. Kyle Nelson, a 6-7 senior, adds 11.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest for the Flyers, who are shooting nearly 49 percent (.487) from the field and averaging 80.3 points per game. *THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with Lewis 10-2, but fell 76-52 in Romeoville last season to snap a nine-game winning streak against the Flyers. In that game, Drury trailed 32-25 at the half but was outscored by 17 after halftime, as Strus finished with a team-high 19 points and seven rebounds and Lewis made 75 percent of its shots (18 of 24) after the intermission. Cameron Adams was the only Panther to reach double-figures, finishing with 10 points as Drury shot 32 percent (18 of 57) from the field for the game.
*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 215 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,434 points in his Drury career, good for 19th on the Panthers' all-time charts after he surpassed former DU great Jasen Fronabarger (1,411 from 1995-99) with his 24-point effort in the win over Tarleton State. He needs 15 points to surpass Marc Ridlen (1,448 from 1980-84) for 18th place on the scoring list. Bundy has scored in double-figures in all 11 games this season and 16 straight games dating back to last year. Bundy has reached double-digits in 61 of his 69 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 29 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 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, and now owns a 251-92 mark (.733 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes an 87-21 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 4-1 this season in games decided by five points or less, continuing his outstanding trend in that regard: In 12 seasons, Hesser's Panthers are 64-27 (.701 win percentage) in that scenario, including 27-8 (.774) since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
*QUICKIES: The Panthers registered a season-high 11 steals in the win over Central Christian on Saturday. ... After making 20 or more free throws in their first four games, the Panthers have yet to reach that mark in in their last seven games. ... Josh Palmer, coming off a career-high 15 points against Central Christian, is averaging 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds over his last three games. ... *ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will continue the road swing on Saturday at Wisconsin-Parkside for a 7 p.m. tipoff against the Rangers that will be televised nationally on the American Sports Network and shown live locally on KOZL in the Springfield TV market. The Panthers return home next week to host GLVC East teams Indianapolis on Thursday and Saint Joseph's on Saturday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. For tickets, call (417) 873-6389 (kids 12-and-under are admitted free to all DU home regular season games).
