ORANGE, Calif.—  Concordia (Calif.) outscored Drury 21-3 in the final 8:17 of regulation to pick up a 65-62 win over the Panthers at the D-2 CCA Tipoff Classic on Saturday in Orange, California.
 
Drury fell to 0-2 while the Eagles improved to 1-1 after the second game in the event for both teams.
 
The Panthers led 38-28 at halftime and shot 55 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. They quickly expanded that margin to 17 points in the early moments of the second half taking a 48-31 lead with 16:04 remaining.
 
Concordia, however, chipped away and pulled within nine five minutes later. The Panthers pushed their lead back to double-digits, though, and with 8:17 remaining were up 57-44.
 
The game came unraveled from that point on for Drury. The Panthers would connect on just two shots from the field the rest of the way while the Eagles rallied and took the lead for good with 1:56 left on an Austin Clarke three-pointer to go ahead 63-60.
 
Drury had the ball down by three, 65-62, with eight seconds remaining but Conley Garrison's three-point attempt in the final seconds was blocked.
 
"I watched Concordia play last night and the one thing I noticed was that it didn't matter what the score was, they were going to keep playing hard," said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. "That's what happened today. If you want to be good, you have to certain things, and you have to do them from the first tip to the final buzzer. We did some good things today. Concordia pressures you hard, and they're athletic. We executed some things that were very good, but we didn't always compete very hard, and we had some turnovers. "
 
The Panthers ended up shooting 42 percent from the field in the game after a second half that saw them connect on just 9 of 30 shot attempts. Drury went 3 for 18 from the three-point range in the contest.
 
Conley Garrison led the Panthers with 15 points while John Williams came off of the bench and added 12 points and eight rebounds.
 
Austin Clarke led Concordia with 16 points on 6 for 9 shooting and had seven rebounds.  
 
Drury will play their third game in three days on Sunday in the D-2 CCA Tipoff Classic as they take on Azusa Pacific at 3:30 p.m. in Orange, Calif.     
 
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