EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.— This one hurt.
 
Drury University battled face-to-face with top-seeded Missouri-St. Louis and led most of the game before falling 53-51 Friday night on an off-balance, last-second field goal.
 
The 20-9 and eighth-seeded Panthers had several chances to get more than a field-goal separation in the final minutes but missed critical shots and free throws in the quarterfinal of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament in Edwardsville, Ill.
 
Yaakeem Rose pushed the ball down the court with 9.6 seconds left after junior guard Conley Garrison missed a pair of free throws. Drury defenders harassed Rose before the Tritons point guard, twisting away, unleashed a high-arching shot from 22 feet on the right side of the basket that found its way through the net.
 
"I couldn't be prouder of our guys," said Drury head coach Steve Hesser. "They competed their tails off for 40 minutes, and they defended the last possession to a T. Their guy just threw one in. That's why they call it March Madness; it just happened to be at the expense of us. But I don't want to take anything away from how well our guys competed.
 
"Tonight showed the improvement that we made coming down the stretch," added Hesser. "I hated this for our seniors because it's their last game, but our guys have NOTHING to be ashamed of with this game. They played hard, they played together, and they cared. It was just March basketball."
 
Garrison scored 25 points, including 7-of-12 on 3-pointers. But, for some reason on Thursday, free throws bounced crazily off the rim, even from 90-percent shooters like him. Drury was just 5-for-12 from the line while UMSL went 4-for-13 from the stripe, well under their season averages.
 
Drury led for more than 31 minutes, and owned a 30-25 advantage at halftime.
 
Jose Grubbs led UMSL with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Lane Duncan grabbed nine rebounds and three steals, while Asa Hutchinson had six rebounds for Drury.
 
Missouri-St. Louis, ranked 16th in NCAA-II, advance to the semifinals with a 26-5 record.
 
 
#MoreThanChampions