Sometimes it doesn’t take much to get several thousand elementary students screaming, but the Drury Lady Panthers delighted a record crowd of 3,258 at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Hiland Dairy Kids Day as they won their 11th straight game with a 93-63 win over Lane College on Wednesday afternoon.
All 11 Drury players scored inside of the game’s first 13 minutes as the Lady Panthers built a 20-8 lead after the first quarter and a 49-24 advantage at halftime.
Drury, ranked eighth in NCAA-II, raised their record to 13-1 and dropped the Dragons to 3-13.
“It was pretty cool to see the electricity in the building today,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “Overall, I felt good about how our team played on a day that’s not a normal game-day given the 11 o’clock start and a different kind of atmosphere.”
Azia Lynch and Emily Parker both came off of the bench, and both freshmen scored collegiate career highs with 19 points. Hailey Diestelkamp had 12 points, seven rebounds, and five steals.
“It was good to see the three-ball drop for Emily,” said Miller. “We’ve been working with Azia on her isolated in the low post, and she did a good job there today. It was good to see those two players have good games.”
Chloe Roberts led Lane with 16 points.
Drury shot 47 percent in the game hitting 31 of 66 shots, connected on 10 three-pointers and the team’s 93 points was a season-high. The Lady Panthers also owned a 51-27 rebound advantage.
The Lady Panthers return to conference play on Saturday when they host Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent Missouri S&T. Game time is 1 p.m. at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
