SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Drury Panthers improved to 4-1 on the season Tuesday night with a 91-59 win over the Fontbonne Griffins in the opening round of the DoubleTree Thanksgiving Classic at the O'Reilly Family Event.
 
Drury used a solid first half shooting performance in route to a commanding 44-28 lead at halftime lead, then withstood an early second half run by the Griffins to secure the win.
 
Fontbonne pulled to within seven points early in the second half to trail at just 49-42, but the Panthers held them scoreless for more than four minutes and went on a 27-6 scoring binge to pull away.
 
"A lot of times in all of that it was our bench guys that came in and gave us a big spark," said Drury head coach Chris Foster.  "I think our depth is going to be important for us and it's good to see them come in and impact the game and help us stretch out the lead."
 
Panther freshman Juok Riak topped the scoring for Drury with 19 points, on eight of ten shooting from the field, with most coming via impressive slam dunk finishes at the rim.
 
"He's such a great athlete and we've just gotta keep finding ways to get him involved," added Foster.  "And then to also have six assists on the night, it was good to see him have another big game and I'm looking forward to a lot of special things he can do in a Drury uniform."
 
Drury had no others reach double figures for the game, but a balanced team scoring effort saw six players account for either eight or nine points each with the Panthers posting 24 assists on 37 made shots on 71 attempts for a 52 percent shooting night.
 
Fontbonne, which dropped to 3-2 overall with the loss, was led in scoring by Grant Hastings, who closed with 15 points.
 
The Panthers outrebounded the Griffins 46-34.
 
The Panthers return to action, Wednesday, November 22nd, when they conclude the DoubleTree Thanksgiving Classic with a 7:45 pm contest against Missouri Southern at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
#allweDUiswin