DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Drury fought off a late charge from Embry-Riddle to earn an 84-79 road win at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach, Florida on Sunday.
The Panthers improved to 8-2 while dropping the Eagles to 5-6.
Drury led 48-38 at halftime and built a 14-point lead early in the second half.
Embry-Riddle rallied with a 15-4 run during a five-minute span that brought them within three points of the lead with 11:07 remaining.
The Panthers never relinquished the lead, however, as the Eagles threatened down the stretch and twice pulled within a point of the lead.
Joshua Hawkins made two free throws with 41 seconds left that dropped Drury's lead to one, 80-79, but the Panthers connected on a pair of free throws by Allen Billinger with 15 seconds remaining to put them back ahead by three.
Ognjen Miljkovic missed from three-point range in an attempt to tie the game and Drury's
Kamau Kinder grabbed the rebound, then iced the contest hitting two free throws with five seconds left.
"At Drury, we have a saying that undersized does not mean undermanned," said Panthers head coach
Steve Hesser. "In my 14 years here I don't think we've played a team that's this big and physical. I'll give my guys credit, even though I thought we could have done a better job inside at times, we outrebounded them by seven and had 13 offensive boards to their eight."
Drury went 10 for 10 from the free throw line, only committed eight turnovers and owned a 40-33 rebound advantage.
Andrew Ballock registered the first double-double for the Panthers this year scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. The junior from Eudora, Kansas also had five assists.
Isaac Johnson added 17 points and five assists while Conley Garrison chipped in 14 points.
Embry-Riddle's Rudy Bibb-Boyd had a game-high 20 points while Joshua Hawkins had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Miljkovic, the 6-7, 240-pound forward for the Eagles, added 18 points.
"We did some things down the stretch when we were facing some adversity that makes me see that this team is improving," Hesser added. "I still think there's a lot of growth in this bunch."
Drury is idle until Dec. 30 when they play a non-conference home game against Saint Mary (Kan.). Game time is 3:15 p.m. at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
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