ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The ninth-ranked Drury Lady Panthers pulled away from Missouri-St. Louis in the second half for a 64-53 win in St. Louis on Saturday.
Drury improved to 24-3 and 16-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. UMSL had their five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 14-11 and 9-8 in the league.
Drury trailed by six in the second quarter but rallied with a 14-4 run to take a 30-28 lead at halftime. The Lady Panthers opened up a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter as they outscored the Tritons 34-25 in the second half.
“We didn’t get any touches in the post in the first half and we were outscored 24-6 for points-in-the-paint that half,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We needed to get the ball inside and I thought Hannah Dressler did a wonderful job of stepping up and making things happen. That opened up more things for us on the perimeter.”
Dressler scored all six of her points in the third quarter as Drury built their lead.
Hailey Diestelkamp led the Lady Panthers with 18 points and eight rebounds. Heather Harman added 16 points.
The Lady Panthers out-rebounded the Tritons 36-26 with Drury grabbing 20 offensive rebounds. That helped Drury overcome being outshot in the game. UMSL went 49 percent from the field while the Lady Panthers only connected on 39 percent of their shots from the field.
“We had a lot of players step up when we needed them,” added Miller. “We got good contributions from our bench and it was a good team win.”
Jordan Fletcher led the Tritons with 16 points.
Drury plays their final game of the regular season on Thursday. The Lady Panthers travel to Missouri S&T with tipoff at 5:30 p.m. in Rolla.
