ORANGE, Calif.— The Drury Panthers forced overtime against fourth-ranked West Texas A&M but fell to the Buffaloes 68-62 in the season-opening game for both teams on Friday at the D-2 CCA Tipoff Classic in Orange, California.
The Panthers took a 60-57 lead with 2:40 left in overtime on a
Conley Garrison three-pointer, but West Texas A&M responded with a 9-0 run and took a 66-60 lead with 28 seconds remaining. The Buffs held Drury to just 2 for 11 shooting in OT.
West Texas A&M's Ryan Quaid, named an NCAA-II preseason All-American by The Sporting News, had a game-high 17 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. Gach Gach also had a double-double for the Buffs with 12 points and 11 boards.
Conley Garrison led the Panthers with 15 points while
Isaac Johnson and
Andrew Ballock both had 13.
"West Texas A&M is a very good basketball team with a championship pedigree from their experience last year," said Drury head coach
Steve Hesser. "I'm really proud of our guys. Our negative last year was that we wouldn't play with grit against high-level opponents – especially on the defensive end. Today, we rotated and did some outstanding things defensively."
Drury held the Buffs, a team that went 32-4 and advanced to the national semifinals last season, to 32 percent shooting from the field as they connected on just 20 of 63 attempts while going 9 for 37 from three-point range.
The Panthers, however, were 5 for 25 from behind the three-point arc and shot 36 percent from the floor going 24 for 67. Drury went 9 for 13 from the foul line while West Texas A&M convered 19 of their 25 free throw attempts.
"We've got some work to do on the offensive end," added coach Hesser. "We've got to get to the free throw line more, and we've got to become more aggressive on offense. But I'm very happy with the effort our guys played with today."
Drury owned a 31-20 lead with 5:25 left before intermission before the Buffs chipped away pulled within one at halftime, 34-33.
In a tightly contested second half, the Panthers trailed by two in the closing minute but an
Isaac Johnson lay-up with 25 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 57-57, and the game went into overtime as West Texas A&M's Eric Mosley missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.
The Buffs outscored Drury 11-5 in the overtime period.
The Panthers play again on Saturday in the second day of the D-2 CCA Tipoff Classic as they take on Concordia (Calif.) at 1:15 p.m. in Orange, Calif.
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