For nearly 38 minutes the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons were on the verge of eliminating the top-seeded Drury Lady Panthers from the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament in the semifinal round on Saturday. But Drury would rally late and advance to Sunday’s championship game with a 69-66 win at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
The Lady Panthers, ranked third in the NCAA-II coaches’ poll, improved to 28-2 and ended UMSL’s season with a 21-6 record. Drury’s win snapped the Tritons 14-game winning streak while the Lady Panthers won their 13th straight.
Drury started the fourth quarter trailing 52-46 and found themselves behind by five, 62-57, with 2:15 remaining. The Lady Panthers chipped away with three-pointers from seniors Alice Heinzler and Heather Harman and took advantage of a UMSL turnover that put Hailey Diestelkamp at the free throw line with 25 seconds left. The sophomore from Owensville sank both giving Drury their first lead in the second half, 65-64.
Heinzler grabbed her seventh steal of the game 11 seconds later, was fouled and her two free throws put the Lady Panthers ahead by three.
UMSL, the fourth seed in the tournament, still had a chance to tie as Arielle Jackson was fouled on a three-point attempt with four seconds on the clock but only connected on two of the three tries. Heinzler then sealed the game with two more free throws.
“Our seniors did what they needed to do in crunch time, and that’s make big plays,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We had to have some persistence, and our group just had the will to win this game.”
Harman led Drury with 19 points while Heinzler finished with 18 and scored 14 of those in the fourth quarter.
Jackson led the Tritons with a game-high 24 points.
UMSL shot 51 percent from the field hitting 27 of their 53 shots and went 6 for 15 from the three-point line. The Lady Panthers shot 41 percent connecting on 23 of 56 attempts and were 8 for 21 from long-range. Drury was out-rebounded 37-20.
“UMSL is one of the best teams we’ve played all year,” said Miller. “This was the toughest game we’ve played to date. They deserve a lot of credit. They are a well-coached team…they’re very talented, and they defended and rebounded really well.”
Drury will play second-seeded Southern Indiana for the GLVC championship on Sunday. The Lady Panthers will be looking to win back-to-back GLVC tournaments for the first time in program history. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
