Springfield, Mo. -- Missouri Science and Technology withstood a furious Drury charge and held off the Lady Panthers for a 66-63 victory in the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener for both teams Thursday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Katie Pritchard scored a season-high 24 points and became DU's all-time leader in made 3-pointers (217), and Bethanie Funderburk added 17 points - and became the 13th player in the program's history to eclipse the 1,000-point barrier for her career, now with 1,010 points -  but it wasn't enough as the Lady Panthers fell to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the league.

Kylie Cooper and Toni Knar had 16 points each to lead the Lady Miners (3-3, 1-0), who built a 34-24 halftime advantage, then scored the first seven points of the second half for a 17-point cushion (41-24) with 18 minutes to go.

The Lady Panthers chipped away at the deficit, and had it down to three (54-51) with five minutes left after a pair of Pritchard free throws.

But Drury could never get the big bucket to put them over the massive hump they encountered early in the half in losing to S & T for the third time in their last four meetings, after winning the first 13 in the series.

The Lady Panthers had a remote chance late, when Marla Munsen's jumper after Emilie Gray picked off S & T in-bounds pass against the press with four seconds left made it a 65-63 lead. But Kylie Cooper made one of her two free throws with three seconds to go, and Pritchard fired an off-balance, 25-footer at the buzzer that wouldn't drop to give the Lady Miners the ever-important GLVC road win.

"We had a really slow start in the second half and just dug a hole too deep," Drury coach Steve Harold said. "I thought we fought and scrapped ... it seemed like it took us facing a 17-point deficit for us to realize we had to get out and pressure. 

"I told them if they'd played with the intensity and enthusiasm they played with in the last 10 minutes, the game's not close. But hats off to S & T ... they weathered the storm. We had a heck of a comeback, but not enough."

The Lady Miners claimed a 42-28 advantage on the boards, sending Drury to 0-3 in games in which the Lady Panthers were outrebounded. Hailee Parks had a game-high nine boards to go with 13 points for S & T.

Drury finished with 15 turnovers to 18 by the Lady Miners, who had 15 of those miscues in the second half. 
Pritchard, who surpassed Hope Hunt (213 from 2000-05) on the all-time 3-pointers made chart on Thursday, also had six assists and four rebounds to go with a 5-for-7 shooting effort from 3-point range.

The Lady Panthers are now idle until participating in the Cruzin' Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Dec. 17-18.