Bolivar, Mo. – The SBU women's basketball team returned home Monday evening to battle the Drury Panthers in the highway 13 rivalry. It was a tight game all the way through, but Bearcats comeback fell short 57-58. This moves them to 2-5 (0-2 GLVC) on the season.
 
The 1^st quarter stayed even throughout as the Bearcats trailed 9-12 after 10 minutes. Drury came to life in the second going on a 2-12 run in the early minutes, even leading by as much as 15 until the teams went into the locker room 23-32 in favor of the Panthers.
 
The comeback seemed dire in the early minutes of half two as Drury quickly jumped out to another 15-point lead. Point by point, SBU would chip away at that lead, cutting it to only six after 30 minutes of play.
 
That lead extended to 11 four minutes in until Southwest Baptist made one final push going on a 12-2 run putting them down 1 with 30 seconds remaining. With Drury in possession, trailing by one, shot clock off, the Bearcat defense stepped up forcing a jump ball, possession arrow favoring SBU. With a chance to win the game in the final moments, the shot from Ida Lusadisu N'Gonda fell just short for a final score of 57-58.
 
For the first time this season Natalia Crooke led the team in scoring with 15 points. Nearly half of those came from the free throw line as she made 7-8 from the charity stripe. Kamiyah Hurd was inches away from her third straight double-double as she pulled down eight rebounds with 13 points. The team as whole went 13-15 from the free throw line for an impressive 86.7%.
 
Only two days off for SBU before they head right back into conference play. On Thursday evening, they'll head North to take on the Cardinals of William Jewell at 5:30 p.m. in Liberty, Missouri.