SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Drury built an early 15-point lead against Southwest Baptist and hung on to defeat the Bearcats 71-63 on Tuesday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. It marked the fifth straight win for Drury over SBU in the Bank of Bolivar Highway 13 Cat Fight.
 
The 22^nd ranked Panthers improved to 2-0 while SBU dropped to 1-2.
 
The Panthers' defense created eight Southwest Baptist turnovers in the game's first 11 minutes as Drury took a 23-8 lead. The Bearcats battled back to trail by 12 at halftime, 32-20, then pulled as close as five in the second half but never got within a possession of the lead.
 
"I thought in the first ten minutes we did a lot of the things we need to do," said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. "We got away from some fundamental things defensively in the second half but they screen well, they run their offense well and they're hard to guard."
 
Isaac Johnson led all scorers with 16. Drury's freshman guard out of Springfield-Kickapoo opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers and was 4 for 7 from behind the arc in the game.
 
"He got us going offensively and that ended up fueling our defense," said Hesser.
 
John Williams added 12 points for the Panthers while Tevin Foster and Douglas Moore both had 11.
 
Southwest Baptist was led by Louis Baltazar and Cartier Dean who both had 14 points.
 
Drury increased their lead in the all-time series to 37-18 with the win.
 
The Panthers play at home again on Friday when they host Randall (Okla.) for a 7 p.m. game at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 

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