Bundy and Gamiz

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

Panthers Shoot For Outright GLVC West Title On Senior Night Against S&T Thursday At The O'

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

Panthers Shoot For Outright GLVC West Title On Senior Night Against S&T Thursday At The O'

Seniors Kameron Bundy and Lucciano Gamiz
Thursday's "Senior Night" game between the Drury Panthers and Missouri S&T Miners, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (18-7, 13-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play host to Missouri Science & Technology (8-18, 4-13) in a 7:45 p.m. tipoff Thursday night 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). It will also be televised live by Mediacom Connections 22 (MC22).

*PROMOTIONS: It's Senior Night at Drury, with the Panthers' two seniors - Kameron Bundy and Lucciano Gamiz - to be honored in pre-game ceremonies approximately 10 minutes before the opening tipoff. Bundy is a four-year member of the program, Gamiz in his second season as a Panther after transferring to DU from Antelope Valley (Calif.) Community College.

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury will be gunning for its fourth straight outright GLVC West title and the No. 2 seed in the GLVC Championship post-season tournament with a victory over the Miners. But this matchup goes deeper than division titles, first-round byes and senior ceremonies - it's a revenge game for the Panthers, who were embarrassed by S&T 74-56 in Rolla on December 12, in which the Miners' snapped a 21-game losing streak to DU that dated back to 1996. S&T dominated the Panthers on the boards in that one (47-31), including a 22-3 advantage in offensive rebounds, and forced 18 DU turnovers while committing just nine themselves. Since that game, Drury has won 13 of its last 17 games - including a current winning streak of six straight - while S&T has dropped 13 of its last 16, including eight in a row. The Miners fell 98-67 at Maryville on Saturday, while the Panthers downed UMSL 77-72 that afternoon at The O' behind 24 points from Bundy. Drury holds a one-game lead over Quincy (12-5) in the West standings heading into Thursday's final regular season game for both; a Drury loss to S&T and a Quincy win at home over Truman State would create a tie for the West title, but would give the Hawks the No. 2 seed (despite the fact that Drury defeated Quincy head-to-head in their only meeting) due to the GLVC's tie-breaking procedures. If that were the case, the Panthers and Miners would quite possibly turn around and play again on Sunday afternoon at The O' in a GLVC tourney first-round "play-in" game as the Nos. 5 and 12 seeds. Translated: If the Panthers take care of business at home on Thursday, they'll win the West and head to St. Charles, Mo., late next week (Friday) to begin defense of their GLVC championship as the West champ and overall No. 2 seed again.

*SCOUTING S&T: Coach Jim Glash's Miners have had a rough go of it since their marquee win of the season coming over the the Panthers in mid-December capped a 3-0 start in GLVC play, with their only league win since being a 73-62 triumph over Rockhurst in Kansas City on January 23rd. B.J. McLaughlin, a 6-5 senior, averages 14.6 points to lead the Miners, who get 11.5 points per game from Zach Ellis and 11.0 from 6-5 senior Desmond Buerge. Rokas Paulaskas, a 6-8 junior, averages 7.2 rebounds to pace S&T on the boards. The Miners rank sixth in the GLVC in scoring at 81.7 points per game, but are 15th in the league in scoring defense, allowing 86.2 points per contest, allowing opponents to shoot .533 from the field and .402 from 3-point range, both league worsts. The Miners pace the GLVC in offensive rebounds per game (14.0).

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with Missouri S&T 34-5, including 20-1 since the teams became GLVC members in 2005-06. Drury defeated the Miners 70-67 at The O' last season. The Miners' last win in Springfield came on February 22, 1977, when then Missouri-Rolla won 74-69 at Weiser Gym, when the Miners also won 71-64 in Rolla that year to sweep the season series from a Drury program that would win the NAIA national championship two years later.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 498 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,717 points in his Drury career, good for 10th place on the all-time DU scoring charts. The former Nixa High standout is now 63 points behind No. 9 Ted Young (1,780 from 1980-84) on the DU scoring list, has scored in double-figures in 24 of 25 games this season and 29 of his last 30 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 74 of his 83 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 37 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.

*QUICKIES: Drury has won or shared the GLVC West title now for four straight years, in eight of its 11 seasons as a league member, including six of the past seven. ... Drury outrebounded an opponent in back-to-back games for the first time this season when the Panthers out-boarded by UMSL and Maryville last weekend at The O'. The Panthers are 9-0 this season when they outrebound their foe. ... Drury is 6-0 in February, continuing the streak of Coach Steve Hesser's finest month in his 12-year career on the DU bench. The Panthers are 73-17 under Hesser in February. ... Drury has shot 54 percent or better from the field in each of its last three games. .... UMSL's 52 percent shooting on Saturday snapped a string of seven consecutive games in which DU had held an opponent below 50 percent from the field. ... Freshman Douglas Moore is averaging 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds over his last three games. ... Bundy is riding a string of four straight 20-point plus outings and six of his last seven. ... Bundy's 73 3-pointers this season - a career high in a season for him - give him 211 for his career, fifth-most in DU history. He needs 34 more to pass Jasen Fronabarger (244 from 1995-99) for fourth. ... The Panthers' current six-game winning streak is the longest among GLVC squads. East champion Bellarmine is next, having won four in a row. ... Freshman guard Grant Boswell has made 8 of his last 11 attempts from 3-point range. ... Sophomore guard Tevin Foster is on a string of nine consecutive double-digit scoring efforts. He's 42 of 48 (88 percent) at the FT line in that stretch. ... Drury is 22-2 in February home games since The O' opened at the start of the 2010-11 season, with the only losses to Northern Kentucky (72-69) in 2011 and William Jewell (73-59) last season. ... Bundy has scored 20 or more points in four straight and seven of his last nine, with the two exceptions both being 19-point efforts. ...

*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 262-95 mark (.735 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes a 98-24 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 7-2 this season in games decided by five points or less, continuing his outstanding trend in that regard: In 12 seasons, Hesser's Panthers are 67-28 (.705 win percentage) in that scenario, including 30-9 (.775) since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

*ON DECK FOR THE PANTHERS: Drury will participate in the GLVC Championship post-season tournament, with opponent and date to be determined after Thursday night's final round of GLVC regular season games across the league.
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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
Grant Boswell

#32 Grant Boswell

G
6' 4"
Freshman
Guard
Douglas Moore

#24 Douglas Moore

F
6' 7"
Freshman

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
Grant Boswell

#32 Grant Boswell

6' 4"
Freshman
Guard
G
Douglas Moore

#24 Douglas Moore

6' 7"
Freshman
F