SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The Drury women returned to the court Sunday in usual fashion — a dominating 92-59 victory over Maryville.
Junior Paige Robinson scored 22 points and added seven assists and five rebounds as the Lady Panthers rose to 7-0 this season. Drury has won 39 straight games, 73 in the regular season and 57 at O’Reilly Family Event Center.
It was another all-around team effort for Drury:
— Senior forward Azia Lynch had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
— Senior forward Emily Parker scored 15 points and had four rebounds,
— Senior Payton Richards had 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
— Transfer senior Katie Kirkhart added eight points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals as Drury.
Lady Panthers head coach Amy Eagan said there’s no doubt that Robinson must play a lot of minutes, but Drury’s depth helps on both offense and defense. “We need her,” she said. “She does things on both ends of the floor for us. She does a good job of taking care of the ball. The more other players get involved, the better it is on her.”
She purposely had the Lady Panthers drop back into a half-court defense after Maryville’s ball handlers reached the midfloor. “We didn’t trap as much,” she said.
That helped result in holding the Saints’ leading scorer, Antoinette Mussorici (19.3 points a game), to just one field goal. She made eight free throws and finished with 10 points.
The Saints (2-3) were led by Jayda Jansen with 16. She averaged 18.5 coming in.
Parker said the Lady Panthers came back after the holiday break and had some good practices. “We were able to pick right back up,” she said. “We’ve been jelling real well this season.”
Senior Kelsey Winfrey totaled five points and four rebounds, and freshman Allie Clevenger added five points and a game-high three steals.
Drury returns to O’Reilly for its next four games, starting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday against McKendree (3-4).
