Katie Pritchard had 15 points and was the only Lady Panther to reach double-figures as Drury fell to 4-2 on the season. Missouri Southern improved to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the rivalry with DU that resumed Saturday for the first time since 2001.
But Southern chipped away, taking advantage of Drury's second-half misses at the FT line (11 of 17) and 0 for 8 effort from 3-point range - including a miss by Pritchard in the final five seconds that would have tied it - to steal the victory.
Dominique Mosley's layup with 8:11 remaining gave the Lady Lions their first lead in the second half (47-46), and it was back and forth from there. Drury led 57-52 after Pritchard's jumper with 3:42 to go, but added only two free throws by Pritchard at the 2:28 mark the rest of the way.
"We shut down and quit executing," Drury coach Steve Harold said of the Lady Panthers in the second half.
"Our defense wasn't as consistent, we did a poor job of handling penetration and gave up open threes and offensively, we just wouldn't commit to moving the basketball."
Jolee Sharp had 15 points, Shatara Stone added 13 points and Erin Rice had 10 points for the Lady Lions, who outrebounded Drury 41-35. Abby Bracker had nine rebounds off the bench for the Lady Panthers, and was the only DU player with more than three boards in the contest.
The Lady Panthers shot just 36 percent from the field (18 of 50), including 33 percent in the second half (8 of 24).
Drury forced 24 turnovers by the Lady Lions, but also committed 21 miscues.
The Lady Panthers are back in action on Thursday, opening Great Lakes Valley Conference play against Missouri S & T in a 5:30 p.m. tipoff at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
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