Tevin Foster

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

Panthers Open Defense Of GLVC Crown With Friday Showdown Vs. Quincy

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

Panthers Open Defense Of GLVC Crown With Friday Showdown Vs. Quincy

Tevin Foster
Friday's matchup between No. 2 seed Drury and No. 7 seed Quincy in the GLVC Championship post-season tourney quarterfinals, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (19-7) will face Quincy (19-9) in Friday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal matchup of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship post-season tournament at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo.

*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 through the GLVC Sports Network at www.glvcsports.com/watch, where all 14 (men's/women's) games of the tournament will be webcast.

*OTHER QUARTERFINAL MATCHUPS: In Friday's other games, top seed Bellarmine will play No. 8 seed Southern Indiana at noon, No. 4 seed Indianapolis will play No. 5 seed Lewis at 2:30 p.m. and No. 3 seed Wisconsin-Parkside will face No. 6 seed Truman State at 8:30 p.m. Saturday's semifinals are set for 6 and 8:30 p.m., with Sunday's title game to tip off at 3:30 p.m.

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*ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Drury enters the GLVC tourney quarterfinals as the hottest of the eight remaining teams in the field, taking a seven-game winning streak into Family Arena (where the Panthers went 3-0 last year to claim their third GLVC title in program history). Coach Steve Hesser's Panthers tuned up for the post-season, and completed a 7-0 month of February, with a 95-76 victory over Missouri S&T last Thursday for Senior Night at The O', where sophomore guard Tevin Foster scored 20 points to lead five Panthers in double-figures as DU avenged an 18-point loss at S&T on December 12. A DU squad that got outrebounded by 16 (47-31) at S&T in December turned the tables this time, beating the Miners on the boards 38-30 in the regular season finale. That's been a common theme for the streaking Panthers of late - after outrebounding just six of their first 20 opponents, the Panthers have beaten foes on the boards in three straight and four of the last six games. Senior guard Kameron Bundy also has stepped up his game during the late stretch, averaging 22.8 points per game over his last 10 games, with a high of 30 points and a low of 19 points in that period. Bundy averages 19.9 points, Foster adds 14.4 points and Joshua Palmer contributes 10.6 points per game to lead DU. The Panthers fell out of the NCAA-II Midwest Region rankings after being No. 10 the previous two weeks; the top eight will advance to the regional. In other words ... much like last year, Drury needs a deep run in the GLVC tourney to have a chance at extending its streak of NCAA-II tourney appearances to four consecutive years.

*SCOUTING QUINCY: Coach Marty Bell's Hawks, who tied Truman State for second in the GLVC West final standings at 12-6 (two games behind the West champion Panthers), advanced to the GLVC tourney quarterfinals with an 87-80 home win over No. 10 seed McKendree on Sunday, with Herm Senor II's 21 points leading four Hawks in double-figures. Quincy and Drury met once during the regular season, with the Panthers building a double-digit advantage in the second half and holding off a strong Quincy charge down the stretch for a 79-76 win on January 28 at The O'. Joseph Tagarelli had 24 points and 11 rebounds in that matchup, and the 6-5 junior leads Quincy with his 16.5 points per game. Evan McGaughey, a 6-8 junior, adds 13.8 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds for the Hawks, who get 11.5 points per game each from Senor and 10.6 from 6-1 junior guard Von Washington III., a Western Michigan transfer. Godson Eneogwe, a 6-6 senior, adds 10.4 points per game. Quincy leads the GLVC in scoring at 86.8 points per game and steals (9.0 per game) and is second in the league in rebounding, grabbing 38.1 per contest. 

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with Quincy 28-16, with the Panthers riding a seven-game win streak against the Hawks. The last three meetings have been decided by three, two and five points - the latter two in overtime - including DU's now legendary "Bundy Bomb" win last year at The O', where Bundy nailed a 40-footer at the OT buzzer to give the Panthers a 90-88 victory, a play that earned GEICO National Play Of The Year honors two months later.

*BUNDY CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 517 points this season, Bundy now has scored 1,736 points in his Drury career, good for 10th place on the all-time DU scoring charts. The former Nixa High standout is now 44 points behind No. 9 Ted Young (1,780 from 1980-84) on the DU scoring list, and has scored in double-figures in 25 of 26 games this season and 30 of his last 31 after being held to nine in DU's loss at Parkside on January 9th. Bundy has reached double-digits in 75 of his 84 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. Bundy has played on DU teams that have won 99 games, an NCAA-II national championship, two GLVC titles and made three NCAA-II appearances (so far) in his four-year career, and participated in 95 wins - four shy of the DU program record held by Mike Blakeslee from the early 1980s and Ian Carter from 2010-14.

*QUICKIES: Drury has won eight of its last nine GLVC tournament games and is 16-6 all-time in the league's post-season event. The Panthers have made the field now in 10 of their 11 years as a league member, missing only the 2009 tourney. Drury has captured GLVC titles in 2008, 2013 and 2015. ... Drury is 10-0 this season when it outrebounds the opponent, and has done so in three straight. ... A 7-0 month this season pushed Hesser's mark to 74-17 in February over his 12 years on the Panthers' bench. ... 

has won or shared the GLVC West title for four straight years and 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 four games, including a season-best, 62-percent effort (39 of 63) in the win over S&T to close the regular season. ... Defensively, the Panthers have held eight of their last nine opponents below 50 percent shooting from the field. ... Freshman forward Douglas Moore led the Panthers with eight rebounds against S&T and has grabbed five or more boards in five of his last nine games. ... Bundy's 76 3-pointers this season - a career high - give him 214 for his career, fifth-most in DU history. He needs 31 more to pass Jasen Fronabarger (244 from 1995-99) for fourth. ... Foster is on a string of 10 consecutive double-digit scoring efforts, and is averaging 15.9 points in that stretch after leading the Panthers with 20 vs. S&T. ... 

*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 263-95 mark (.735 win percentage) in his DU and collegiate coaching career. That includes a 99-24 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.
 
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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
Douglas Moore

#24 Douglas Moore

F
6' 7"
Freshman

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
Douglas Moore

#24 Douglas Moore

6' 7"
Freshman
F