SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Drury Panthers returned to the O'Reilly Family Event Center on Saturday afternoon and dispatched the Rockhurst Hawks 89-79 to improve to 8-5 for the season and secured their first win in Great Lakes Valley Conference play, moving to 1-4 in league action.
 
It was a stellar inside performance by Riek Riek that helped propel the Panthers to the win.  The towering junior posted his first double-double effort of the season and only the second for the Panthers, pouring in 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, pacing a dominating rebounding performance by Drury, who edged the Hawks 41-27 in that category.
 
"I just love the energy and effort Riek plays with," said Drury head coach Chris Foster.  "Our players feed off of it and our fans do as well.  I don't know that I've ever had a guy with a double-double in the first half, so it was good to see."
 
After leading 32-27 at halftime, the Panthers used a flurry of three-point makes early in the half to pull away from Rockhurst. 
 
Ahead 46-42 with just over 14 minutes to play, Drury hit on five of six made shots from three-point range the next five minutes to build a 20-point advantage that the visitors could not overcome.
 
"I think it was our post presence and then having guard P.J. (Ngambi) giving us good driving inside, that made them help and it opened things up outside and we know we have good shooters that give us opportunities," added Foster.
 
In addition to the showing by Riek, the Panthers were led in scoring by sophomore Logan Applegate, who had 18, all coming after halftime.  Senior Quenton Shelton and graduate student Adam Moore had 16 each.
 
Rockhurst, dropped to 5-6 overall and 2-3 in GLVC played.  They were led in scoring by Timaris Brown, who had a game-high 28.
 
The Panthers are back in action on Thursday, January 11th, when they host Maryville in a 5:45 pm game at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
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