SPRINGFIELD – The 12th-ranked Drury Lady Panthers outscored 16th ranked Lewis 43-28 in the second half on their way to a 70-54 win on Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
The win keeps Drury’s Great Lakes Valley Conference record perfect at 5-0 and raised their mark to 13-2 overall. Lewis took their first loss in the GLVC as they dropped to 4-1 in the conference and 12-3 overall.
Lewis jumped out to an early 12-5 lead over the Lady Panthers and were ahead 16-13 at the end of the first quarter. The Flyers led most of the first half until Drury rallied in the final two minutes of the second quarter to take a 27-26 lead at halftime.
The Lady Panthers started the second half with a 9-0 run and outscored Lewis 23-11 in the third quarter. Drury built the lead from there holding the Flyers to 32 percent shooting from the field in the second half.
“In the second half, we really regrouped,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “There were some shots not falling for us and some things not going our way in the first half but we decided to persevere. We did a good job of being aggressive defensively.”
Briana Jones came off the bench to lead Drury with 16 points and nine rebounds. Paige Wilson added 15 points while freshman point guard Daejah Bernard had 11 points and a career high nine rebounds.
Jamie Johnson led Lewis with a game-high 21 points.
The Lady Panthers play their next game on the road when they travel to Saint Joseph’s on Thursday. Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m. in Rensselaer, Indiana.
