Drury University coasted to its second straight win Wednesday night, thumping St. Gregory's 86-70 in front of 1,003 fans at Weiser Gym.
The victory sets up a battle of unbeaten rivals Saturday when the Panthers play at Southwest Baptist University.
Drury (2-0) took control of the game early but struggled at times against St. Gregory's zone defense. The Cavaliers (0-4) held Drury scoreless for a five-minute stretch in the first half and cut the lead to one.
The Panthers responded with eight straight points. They added an 8-1 run moments later to take a 35-23 lead with three minutes left in the half. The game was never in jeopardy after that, with Drury leading the entire second half by double digits.
The big lead gave reserves more playing time, including freshman Dominique Long, who scored 11 points in 16 minutes.
"I thought our bench gave us production," coach Steve Hesser said. "We're obviously not where we want to be, but I think we're going in the right direction."
Senior Jamel Grant scored 15 points and was one of five Panthers in double figures. Freshman guard Kyle Vaughan pitched in 12 points, four steals and seven rebounds.
"I thought he had a tremendous game," senior Tim Brown said of Vaughan, a former Kickapoo High School standout. "I thought he came out and had an all-around game. He rebounded well, he guarded well, and he hit shots."
Drury dominated the post to hold a rebounding edge, 53-31. But its persistence on the boards left the Cavaliers' guards open at times. St. Gregory's made 9 of 19 shots from beyond the arc. Kyle Lulko led the Cavaliers with 19 points and drained five of eight 3-pointers.
"We had some breakdowns defensively," Hesser said. "A couple times we had some young ones do some things that aren't what we do. We had some assignment errors. When you have assignment errors, then you usually give up open 3s."
Drury will travel to Bolivar to play the Bearcats at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Meyer Center. Southwest Baptist (2-0) beat Missouri Baptist 100-70 Tuesday night in its home opener, after knocking off Utah in the season opener.
