The Miners saw their bid for an upset come up short Saturday night as Drury overcame a 17-point deficit in the first half and a seven-point UMR lead with six minutes to play for an 86-82 win over the Miners at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

Yamani Ball's hot hand early in the contest -- he scored UMR's first 11 points by making his first four shots from the floor -- helped the Miners get out to a 23-6 lead just over five minutes into play in front of a sizeable crowd on Senior Night at UMR. The Miners made nine of their first 13 shots from the field in that opening run.

UMR held that double-figure lead for a good portion of the half, building it to 16 points again on a three-point basket by Joe Shardo nine minutes into the half. Drury got the lead back into single digits with 5:23 left in the half and went to the locker room trailing by eight when Steven Gum beat the first half buzzer with a three-point shot after the Miners turned the ball over while playing for the final shot of the half.

The Panthers were able to stay on the Miners' heels early in the second half and despite losing their leading scorer, Collins Harris -- who fouled out with 16:51 remaining -- finally caught UMR for the first time wth 12:13 to go on a fast break basket by Brandon Kimbrough. Another layup by Kimbrough moments later gave Drury its first lead of the night at 54-53.

Drury held the lead for the next three minutes, but UMR went back in front on a dunk by Tyrone Davidson with 8:30 to play. The Miners held onto that lead and buiit it to seven with 6:02 left when Justin Taylor scored on a beautiful backdoor play with Davidson and completed the three-point play to give UMR a 72-65 lead.

UMR led 75-71 with 3:41 to play, but the Panthers ran off seven straight points to get a lead it would not relinquish. Kimbrough went the length of the floor after rebounding a Taylor miss and scored with 2:21 on the clock to give Drury a 76-75 lead, then Adam White's putback just under a minute later made it a three-point game.

After Davidson converted just one of two at the line to cut the lead to two, Kimbrough and Tim Brown hit driving layups (Brown got a three-point play on his) to extend the Drury advantage to seven. UMR closed to within three in the final moments after Shardo knocked down a pair of long three-pointers, but Brown made one of two at the line with 2.9 seconds on the clock to ice the win.

UMR had five players in double figures, led by Ball's 18 points. Shea Wiemann, one of two Miners playing in his final home game, finished with 16 points while Shardo scored 15, including going a perfect four-of-four from three-point range. Davidson scored 14 points in his final home game and Taylor landed in double figures with 10.

Kimbrough led all scorers in the game with 23 points. Both teams shot 50 percent from the field for the night.

The Miners (7-18, 2-15 Great Lakes Valley Conference), who fell for the ninth straight time, will finish their season on the road next week starting with Thursday's game at Southern Illinois Edwardsville. Game time is at 7:30 p.m.