LIBERTY, Mo. – Despite rallying from an 18-point second-half deficit to cut the margin to just four points in the closing minutes, Drury men's basketball came out on the short end of an 80-69 Great Lakes Valley Conference decision against William Jewell Thursday evening at Mabee Center.
Drury (12-12, 7-9 GLVC) used a 14-0 scoring spurt to draw to within four points with just under six minutes to play, but the Cardinals answered behind the play of Justice Sutton, who finished the night with 33 points to lift Jewell to its 10th victory in its last 11 games.
After the Panthers closed the gap to within four points for a second time on Kevin Sargeant's two free throws with 2:53 left in regulation, Sutton sank four-straight free throws to give the Cardinals some breathing room. He added a jumper with 1:26 to play that stretched the margin back to seven points, and Jewell converted 8-of-8 attempts at the charity stripe over the final three minutes to ice the game.
Colin Hardrick led the Panthers with 15 points, while Sargeant matched a career high with 13 points. KeShaun Thomas notched his fifth double-double of the season by scoring all 10 of his points in the second half to help fuel the DU comeback.
Jewell (15-8, 11-4 GLVC) benefited from 17 first-half points by Sutton, who logged eight straight points late in the period to help the Cardinals to a seven-point halftime advantage. The Cardinals shot .571 (16-of-28) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, with Sutton leading the charge by going 6-of-8 from the field.
Both teams enjoyed hot shooting starts, with each knocking down eight of its first 11 field-goal attempts of the night. Liberty product Luke Stubbs looked right at home, drilling his first four field goal attempts for eight early points. His jumper at the 12:23 mark handed the Panthers a 16-15 lead, before Zach Howell heated up to sink back-to-back three-pointers, the second of which gave DU another one-point lead at 30-29 advantage with 4:27 left on the clock.
But Sutton put his game into high gear, knocking down a pair of free throws to spark his own 8-0 run. The sophomore guard converted the first of two consecutive three-point plays in less than a minute, extending the Jewell lead to 37-30 with just over three minutes left to play in the half.
A pair of Keion Epps field goals momentarily trimmed the deficit, but Sutton added a basket and Will Beck's reverse layup beat the clock with one second to play for a 41-34 halftime margin.
Layups from Stubbs and Hardrick in the first 40 seconds of the second half sparked the DU offense and cut the deficit to just three points. But the Cardinal defense took control at that point, holding the Panthers scoreless for more than four minutes while expanding the margin to 47-38 with six straight points.
Jewell went 9-of-12 from the floor while limited the Panthers to just 3-of-11 shooting during an eight-minute stretch that saw the home club build a 62-45 lead. The Cardinals buried 3-of-4 tries from beyond the arc as part of the 21-7 run.
But the Panthers bounced back, engineering a 17-4 run of their own that included 14 straight points. Thomas's three-point play with 5:44 to go punctuated the run that turned what had been an 18-point Cardinal lead into a 66-62 game.
DU shot .528 (28-of-53) from the floor for the night, but could not overcome the play of Sutton, who finished 11-of-18 from the floor and 10-of-12 at the line. The Panthers also suffered their first defeat in 10 games this season in which they outscored an opponent in the paint (44-38).
In addition to big nights from Hardrick, Sargeant and Thomas, both Howell and Stubbs finished in double figures with 10 points for Drury.
LOOKING AHEAD
Drury will complete its trip to Kansas City with a 2 p.m., GLVC contest against Rockhurst Saturday (Feb. 14) at Mason-Halpin Field House.
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