SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-- The Drury Panthers fell a bucket short in their Great Lakes Valley Conference opener against the Miners of Missouri S&T on Monday, falling 82-79 at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. 
 
In a tightly contested game that saw a half dozen lead changes in the final three minutes, the Miners hit a free throw and a bucket in the last 15 seconds to break a 79-all tie, then watched as the Panthers missed a desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer to claim the win.
 
The Miners hit a blistering 69 percent from the field in the second half and overcame a five-point halftime deficit to improve to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in GLVC play. The Panthers dropped their fourth game in a row and are now 2-4 on the season and 0-1 in conference action.
 
"Once again, just too many mistakes down the stretch," said Drury head coach Chris Foster. "Especially defensively, and if we rebound the ball, which we didn't do a good job of, then it's maybe different."
 
The Panthers drained ten of twenty shot attempts from beyond the three-point line in the opening half to carry a 45-40 lead into the halftime locker room.   They would finish good on 14 of 31 long-range shots on the night, while the Miners won the rebounding battle, 39-22.
 
"You hit ten threes in the first half, and you're only up five when you should be up 10-plus, then if we defend a little better, it's a different game," added Foster.
 
The Panthers were led in scoring by junior Quenton Shelton, who closed with 21 points. Senior Adam Moore and junior Riley Naeger had 14. 
 
Missouri S&T was paced in scoring by Lovell Williams with 23. Teammate Julien Smith added 21.
 
The Panthers are next in action on Thursday, Dec. 1 when they travel to Missouri-St. Louis in a scheduled 7:30 pm GLVC contest.
 
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