SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Drury Panthers led wire-to-wire to claim a 92-78 win over the Lake Superior State Lakers Saturday afternoon at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, completing a two-game sweep of their Greenstay Inn & Suites Tipoff Classic.
The Panthers opened the contest zizzling from long range, hitting on nine of their first ten shots, all from three-point range, and raced to an early lead on the Lakers.
In fact, the Panthers did not score from two-point distance in the first thirteen minutes of game action, leading by as many as 15 points early before carrying a 48-37 advantage into halftime.
"It's about the kind of shots we get," said Drury head coach
Chris Foster. "We recruited skilled guys that can make those shots and I think the more we play, the more comfortable we'll get with making those plays."
The Lakers battled back in the second half, pulling to within seven at 69-92 with just under eight minutes remaining, but the Panthers continued to pour in points, extending the led to 82-64 with less than five minutes to play and improving to 2-0 on the new season.
"We're learning every day, but we've still got a lot to figure out and it's great to be early in the process," added Foster.
Junior
Riley Naeger paced the Panthers on offense, hitting on 8 of 8 shooting from the field and finishing with a career-best 24 points, as the Panthers placed four players in double figures. Junior
Quenton Shelton and graduate student
Preston Cook closed with 16 points each, while freshman
Trey Lewis added 13.
"Really proud of Riley," said Foster. "He's battled some injuries during the fall and it's been tough on him, but he's just a great competitor and we saw that today."
Kemon Bassett, with 17 points, topped the scoring for the Lakers (0-2).
For the game, Drury hit on 16 of 26 attempts from three-point range and was good on 24 of 31 shots from the free throw line.
The Panthers return to action on Wednesday, Nov 16th, when they open their road season with a 7 pm game at Rogers State in Claremore, Oklahoma.
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