Tevin Foster

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

Panthers Host Southern Indiana Thursday Night At The O'

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

Panthers Host Southern Indiana Thursday Night At The O'

Tevin Foster
Thursday's GLVC matchup between Drury and the University of Southern Indiana at The O', at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (12-7, 7-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will play host to Southern Indiana (14-7, 6-5) in a 7:45 p.m. tipoff 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 www.drurypanthers.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN).

*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing 82-72 home loss to Truman State on Saturday that knocked the Panthers out of a first-place tie in the GLVC West with the Bulldogs and Quincy. In comes a Southern Indiana team that just snapped its own personal four-game losing streak with a 98-81 home win over Saint Joseph's, and the losses were to East powers Bellarmine, Lewis, Parkside and Indianapolis. Drury led Truman State by seven at the half (35-28), but was outscored by 17 in the second half by a hot-shooting Truman squad. Kameron Bundy and Tevin Foster had 20 points each to lead Drury and pace the Panthers on the season, with Bundy averaging 18.8 points and Foster adding 14.3 points per game. Junior forward Josh Palmer adds 10.9 points per game (but had a 10-game streak of scoring in double-figures snapped by Truman), and sophomore forward Drew Moore averages a team-leading 5.8 rebounds to go with his 7.7 points per game. 

*SCOUTING SOUTHERN INDIANA: Coach Rodney Watson's perennial GLVC East and national power opened the season 12-2 before hitting a recent snag with that East swing of its fellow powers and a loss to Quincy mixed in for a stretch of five setbacks in six games before recovering last Saturday against SJC. The Screaming Eagles feature one of the league's most versatile, all-around players in 6-4 junior Jerril Taylor, who ranks seventh in the GLVC in both scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg) and leads the league with his 2.14 steals per contest. Southern Indiana leads the league in rebounding at 39 per game and is 17th nationally average rebounding margin (plus 7.7). George Edwards, a 6-6 senior, adds 6.6 rebounds per game to his 12.3 points per contest.

*THE SERIES: Drury trails Southern Indiana 10-8 in the all-time series, including an 80-59 win for the Panthers last season at The O' that marked the most lopsided contest either way in the history of the series.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 358 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,577 points in his Drury career, good for 13th place on the all-time Panther scoring charts.The senior from Nixa needs six points to surpass Chris Mortellaro (1,582 from 2000-04) for 12th. Bundy has scored in double-figures in 18 of 19 games this season and 23 of his last 24 dating back to last year after being held to nine at Parkside on January 9th. Bundy has reached double-digits in 68 of his 77 games since moving into the starting lineup for the Panthers at the beginning of his sophomore season, including 32 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 256-95 mark (.733 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes a 92-24 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 conclude its four-game homestand on Saturday when the Panthers play host to nationally ninth-ranked Bellarmine (17-3) in a 3:15 p.m. tipoff for the fifth annual "Overflow The O'" game. All tickets are $5 (kids 12-and-under are free) and can be purchased in advance by calling (417) 873-6389.
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Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

G
6' 2"
Senior
Guard
Drew Moore

#41 Drew Moore

F
6' 7"
Sophomore
Forward
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard

Players Mentioned

Kameron Bundy

#3 Kameron Bundy

6' 2"
Senior
Guard
G
Drew Moore

#41 Drew Moore

6' 7"
Sophomore
Forward
F
Tevin Foster

#10 Tevin Foster

6' 0"
Sophomore
Guard
G