SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Freshman guard Logan Applegate took over for the Drury Panthers in the closing minutes on Thursday night and guided the Panthers to a thrilling 75-73 win over the McKendree Bearcats at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
Trailing by twelve points with just over nine minutes to play, the Panthers continued to feed Applegate the ball and he responded, scoring twenty of his game-high and career-best 31 points in the second half in helping the Panthers improve to 5-8 on the season and 1-4 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
 
With Drury behind 65-64 with 2:48  to play, Applegate scored nine of the Panther's final 11 points on a combination of free throws and driving layups to help nail down the victory.
 
"He can score the ball, but tonight I was impressed that he did it in a lot of different ways," said Drury head coach Chris Foster. "And he's not just a shooter. He's grown defensively as well. We've always known he could score, but he's made great progress on the defensive end which allows him to stay on the floor."
 
Despite forcing the Bearcats into sixteen first-half turnovers, the Panthers found themselves trailing 36-33 at intermission. In the second half, they continued to pressure McKendree (6-6, 2-3) into mistakes, as the visitors would finish with a total of 25 turnovers for the game.
 
"I like that we had to fight through things tonight to get the win," added Foster. "I've been proud of how they've handled the adversity at times and have worked hard to stay positive."
 
In addition to Applegate's big night, the Panthers got a 14-point effort from sophomore Brock Wakefield, with junior Quenton Shelton adding 10.
 
Bryson Bultman, with 25 points, was tops in scoring for McKendree.
 
The Panthers are back in action on Saturday in a 1 pm game against Indianapolis at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
 
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