Lucciano Gamiz

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

Panthers Look To Stay Hot For National TV Audience With Saturday GLVC Test At Parkside

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

Panthers Look To Stay Hot For National TV Audience With Saturday GLVC Test At Parkside

Lucciano Gamiz
Saturday's GLVC matchup between the Drury Panthers and Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (8-4, 3-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play at Wisconsin-Parkside (9-2, 2-1) in a 7 p.m. tipoff at DeSimone Gymnasium on the UW-P campus in Kenosha, Wis.

*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.parksiderangers.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network and at ncaa.com as well as the NCAA mobile app. The contest will be televised live by the American Sports Network (ASN), with Darren Goldwater and Nate Ross providing the commentary. Locally, it can be seen live on KOZL (Z-27) of Springfield on channel 27 on DirecTV, U-Verse and Dish Network and Channel 2 on Mediacom cable (channel 702 for HD).

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury will take a three-game winning streak into Parkside after defeating Lewis 71-54 on Thursday in Romeoville, Ill., the Panthers' third win in four tries on the GLVC road this season. Coach Steve Hesser's Panthers jumped out to a 17-2 lead over the Flyers in the game's first 10 minutes and went on to claim a 40-23 halftime advantage. Three treys in a short span from senior guard Kameron Bundy thwarted an early second-half rally attempt by Lewis as the Panthers went on to the victory. Bundy scored 20 points while Tevin Foster and Joshua Palmer added 14 points each to lead the Panthers. Bundy, a preseason All-America selection by three different services, averages 19.6 points while Foster adds 14.3 points per game to lead DU. Palmer has scored in double digits in four straight, averaging 12.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in that stretch. 

*SCOUTING PARKSIDE: Coach Luke Reigel's Rangers are coming off an 89-69 thrashing of previously league unbeaten Missouri S&T on Thursday night, the fifth straight victory for Parkside, which hasn't lost since dropping back-to-back games to Ferris State (84-58) and Indianapolis (90-79) in late November/early December. Senior guard Andy Mazurczak leads the way for Parkside with his 17.5 points per game, and led the Rangers with 27 points and nine rebounds in Thursday's home win. Kendale McCullum, a 6-1 sophomore, adds 12.6 points per game for the Rangers, who outrebounded S&T 39-23 on Thursday - the same S&T that beat the Panthers 47-31 on the boards in DU's 74-56 loss in Rolla on December 12.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with Parkside 9-3 after the teams split two meetings last season. Drury fell 64-53 in Kenosha during the regular season a year ago, doomed by a cold-shooting start (6 of 21 in the opening half), but the Panthers gained revenge with a 68-67 overtime victory over the Rangers in the GLVC Championship post-season tourney semifinals in St. Charles, Mo. Drury went on to win its third league championship a day later.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 235 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,454 points in his Drury career, good for 18th on the Panthers' all-time charts after he surpassed Marc Ridlen (1,448 from 1980-84) with his 20-point effort Thursday at Lewis.  Bundy needs 20 points to pass Jim McKnight (1,473 from 1953-56) for 17th place. Bundy has scored in double-figures in all 12 games this season and 17 straight games dating back to last year. Bundy has reached double-digits in 62 of his 70 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 30 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 252-92 mark (.733 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes an 88-21 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.

*ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will 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).
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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