SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Lady Panthers rebounded from their Thursday loss with an 86-49 win over Lincoln on Saturday afternoon in The O’Reilly Family Event Center as two former Lady Panthers were inducted into the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame.
Lincoln raced out to an early 5-2 lead after a three-pointer and a driving layup back-to-back. Punches were then traded for the remainder of the first quarter, with the Lady Panthers taking the lead at 12-10 with 1:31 left in the first quarter, and did not look back from there.
The first quarter ended with Drury having a 14-10 advantage.
In the first three minutes of the second quarter, Drury pulled away from the Blue Tigers with a 14-2 run led by four points from Sara Mendel and three from Audra Pasakarnis and Raegan Halliday.
Lincoln responded, in the final five and a half minutes, with a glimmer of life. The Blue Tigers scored nine points, four from Isis Sanders. The problem for Lincoln was that they allowed Drury to score ten more points entering the break.
Drury took a 38-21 lead into the halftime break.
A 10-0 run in the middle of the third quarter extended the Lady Panthers’ lead to as much as 33 points. Sara Mendel paced Drury in the third with 11 points and five rebounds.
Drury outscored Lincoln in the quarter 30-14.
With a 68-35 lead, the Lady Panthers kept their foot on the gas in the final quarter, adding 18 in the final to Lincoln’s 14. In the final quarter, the Lady Panthers scored 10 of their 14 points in the paint, leading to the 86-49 win.
