The Drury Panthers found shooting from beyond the arc to their liking on Thursday night as they bombed away in a solid 81-54 win over the Graceland Yellowjackets at the O'Reilly Family Event Center to improve their early season record to 2-1 overall.
 
The Panthers hit on 15 of 35 attempts from three-point range, paced by a 7 of 10 shooting effort from sophomore Zach Howell, and Drury forced the Iowa visitors into 24 turnovers to easily dispatch the Yellowjackets and gain their second win. 
 
Howell, a transfer into the program this season, closed with 23 points, matching his career-best to top the scoring for the Panthers, as he has in all three games this season. Junior Logan Applegate added 20 points, while sophomore Garrett Rodgers tossed in 15 for Drury.
 
"Zach's ready to shoot all the time, so when he gets his feet set, he shoots a really high percentage, and I felt our big guys kept finding him and that was good as well," said Drury head coach Chris Foster.
 
After falling behind 6-0 to open the contest, the Panthers forced the Yellowjackets into 15 first half turnovers and used a 30-13 scoring run to take control, and carried a 37-24 advantage into the intermission locker room. 
 
The Panthers were also able to control the interior game, as the Yellowjackets made just five two-point attempts on the night and scored just eight points in the paint.
 
"I thought we did a good job of forcing turnovers early," added Foster.  "That made them have to make some hard plays on drives inside, and when they did, our help defense was really good."
 
Yellowjackets, who lost for the first time this season after starting the campaign 7-0 were topped in scoring by Carter Brown, who had 14 points.
 
The Panthers will be back in action on Tuesday, November 26th, when they face Union at 7:45 pm on the opening night of the annual DoubleTree Thanksgiving Classic at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.