The Drury Panthers, down by five points in the closing minutes of the first half, used a strong second half start and rolled to a 66-49 win over the Central Missouri Mules to claim a second win in the DoubleTree Thanksgiving Classic Wednesday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Trailing 23-18, the Panthers put together a 22-3 scoring run that extended into the beginning of the second half, then went on to build a margin of as many as 22 points before finishing off the Mules and improving to 4-1 overall for the season.

In addition to the run that pushed them to the lead, the Panthers also opened the final twenty minutes of action, outscoring the Mules 25-9 to remove any doubt as to the outcome.

"We talked at halftime that if we kept guarding and getting stops, we'll eventually find a stretch where we can make some shots and we did," said Drury head coach Chris Foster.

The Panthers would finish shooting 52 percent from the field, making 26 of 50 shots, including 7 of 15 from three-point range.

Sophomore Juok Riak topped the Panther scoring, finishing with a game-high 16 points.  Drury saw three others also reach double figures in scoring, with sophomore Zach Howell dropping 12, junior Elijah Whitley had 11 and freshman Colin Hardrick closed with 10.

"When our shots aren't falling, we gotta find another way to get buckets," added Foster.  "I'm just really proud of these guys and the way they're playing together right now."

The Mules were paced in scoring by Tim Jordan, Jr. and Jake Fritz, who scored 11 points each.  Central Missouri dropped to 3-3 in the year after splitting their two games in the Classic.

The Panthers will next be in action on Monday, December 2nd, when they host Southwest Baptist University in their Great Lakes Valley Conference opener at 7:45 pm at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.