Bolivar, Mo. – In the first meeting of the Highway 13 CatFight, the Bearcats defeated the Panthers 75-63. This marks SBU's second straight win over Drury, dating back to last season's 82-74 victory. SBU improves to 8-2 (8-2 GLVC) and Drury falls to 5-4 (5-4 GLVC).
 
Drury found the bottom of the basket first, but it wasn't long before Brady Smith fired a pass into Quinn Nelson under the goal for SBU's first points of the game. A couple of minutes in, Juan Morales gave SBU their first lead on two made free throws. The teams traded leads until the 13:28 mark where the Bearcats took it for good. Ricky Crawford Jr. hit a big three to put SBU up 19-17. After building the lead to 10 multiple times, the Panthers cut it down to 6 with 5:51 left in the first. The Bearcats responded with a three from Quinn Nelson and a jumper by Brady Smith, quickly pushing the lead to double digits once again. With 4:31 left in the half, Mitch Ganote made what would be SBU's last basket of the half. However, Drury also hit a cold spell, going scoreless until the 48 second mark. Heading into halftime, SBU led 43-35.
 
Joe Miller got the Bearcats back on the board to begin the second half, scoring on an assist from Ganote. Drury cut the deficit down to 9 with 14:58 left, but Quinn Nelson drained another three to expand it back to 12. For a majority of the second half, SBU was able to answer Drury's scores. With 4:45 left on the clock, the Panthers made a free throw to get within 8. The SBU defense locked in and held DU to just 2 points from that point on. Heading into Thursday's game, Drury was averaging 83.5 points per game. The Bearcats held Drury's potent offense to just 63 points on the night.
 
Mitch Ganote had a career high 21 points on 7-12 shooting from the field. He also added 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals while turning the ball over just once. Quinn Nelson was SBU's other dominant scorer on the night with 18 points on 6-9 shooting, including 3-5 from deep. Brady Smith nearly had a triple double, scoring 8 points, snagging a team-high 9 rebounds, and dishing another team-high 8 assists.  
 
The teams will meet again at Drury on Tuesday, January 26 in a make-up game from early December. Before that, SBU will host Missouri S&T on Saturday, January 23 at 3 PM for their second meeting of the season. The Bearcats opened the year with an 86-72 win over the Miners.