Lucciano Gamiz

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

Panthers Look To Clinch Share Of GLVC West Title When UMSL Visits The O' On Homecoming Saturday

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

Panthers Look To Clinch Share Of GLVC West Title When UMSL Visits The O' On Homecoming Saturday

Lucciano Gamiz
Saturday's "Homecoming" game between the Drury Panthers and Missouri-St. Louis Tritons at The O', at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (17-7, 12-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play host to Missouri-St. Louis (11-14, 5-11) in a 3:15 p.m. tipoff in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at the O'Reilly Family Event Center (capacity: 2,850).

*RADIO/TV/INTERNET: The game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM and online at www.radiospringfield.com. A free, live webcast is available at drurypanthers.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN). 

*PROMOTIONS: It's Homecoming festivities on the Drury campus. As always, kids 12-and-under are admitted free to DU home regular season basketball games.

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury will be seeking to clinch at least a share of its fourth straight GLVC West title and sixth in seven years when the Panthers play host to the Tritons from UMSL. Drury leads Quincy by one game with two left to play in the West standings; the Panthers will finish the regular season at home next Thursday against Missouri S&T for Senior Night. DU defeated UMSL 60-51 in St. Louis on December 5, the fifth straight victory for the Panthers in the series. Drury will take a five-game winning streak into Saturday's game, coming off a hard-fought 78-69 win over Maryville on Thursday at The O' in which the Panthers trailed 68-67 with four minutes to play before limiting the Saints to a single point the rest of the game. Kameron Bundy had 22 points, Lucciano Gamiz added 15 points and Tevin Foster scored 14 points - including a big steal and layup followed by a 3-pointer down the stretch - as the Panthers' backcourt led the way. Drury is ranked No. 10 in the first NCAA-II Midwest Region rankings released this week; the top eight teams in the final rankings released on March 6 will advance to the NCAA tourney. Drury is looking for its fourth straight NCAA post-season bid.

*SCOUTING UMSL: Coach Bob Sundvold's Tritons picked up an 89-85 win at Missouri S&T on Thursday night, watching the Miners rally from 19 points down with 10 minutes to play to cut it to four before UMSL closed out the win. The Tritons have won five of their last seven games entering the contest, with the two losses at Bellarmine (81-71) and Southern Indiana (86-76) last weekend. Brandon Marquardt, a 6-2 senior, averages 14.3 points to lead UMSL.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with UMSL 19-7, with five straight victories by the Panthers since falling 71-60 to the Tritons in the quarterfinals of the 2012 GLVC Championship post-season tourney in Springfield, Ill.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 474 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,693 points in his Drury career, good for 10th place on the all-time DU scoring charts after the former Nixa High standout surpassed Roland Schultz (1,633.from 1967-71) with his 24-point effort last Thursday at Illinois Springfield. Bundy, who is now 87 points behind No. 9 Ted Young (1,780 from 1980-84) on the DU scoring list, has scored in double-figures in 23 of 24 games this season and 28 of his last 29 dating back to last year after being held to nine in DU's loss at Parkside on January 9th. Bundy has reached double-digits in 73 of his 82 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 36 games of scoring 20 or more points. His 30-point outburst at William Jewell on Jan. 23 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 261-95 mark (.735 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes a 97-24 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 6-2 this season in games decided by five points or less, continuing his outstanding trend in that regard: In 12 seasons, Hesser's Panthers are 66-28 (.705 win percentage) in that scenario, including 29-9 (.775) since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

*ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will play host to Missouri S&T on Thursday, February 25 (7:45 p.m.) for Senior Night.
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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