SPRINGFIELD – The Drury Lady Panthers started their game against Wisconsin-Parkside with a 9-0 run and rolled to an 87-50 win on Thursday in the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
The 12th ranked Lady Panthers improved to 12-2 and 4-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Rangers dropped to 2-10 and 0-4 in the league.
Drury led 22-10 at the end of the first quarter and held UW-Parkside to just 20 points in the first half opening up a 45-20 lead at the break.
Heather Harman and Hailey Diestelkamp both scored 20 points for the Lady Panthers. Diestelkamp had her fifth double-double of the season as the freshman had 10 rebounds to go with four steals. Briana Jones added 17 points for Drury.
“I was proud of the way we came out defensively,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We put three really good quarters together tonight and I think if we can string some of those quarters together where we’re playing just intense defense, then that’s going to spark our offense. That’s what we need every night out of our defense.”
Drury forced 26 UW-Parkside turnovers and outscored the Rangers 30-6 in points off of turnovers.
Blair Arthur led the UW-Parkside with 13 points.
The Lady Panthers return to action at home on Saturday and host a Lewis team ranked 16thnationally in NCAA-II. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. at the O’Reilly Family Event Center. Tickets can be ordered by calling 417-873-6389.
