ASHLAND, Ohio – The fourth-seeded Drury Lady Panthers attacked top seed Ashland early and often, and then dominated down the stretch to shock the Eagles 86-60 in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional semifinals Saturday night, ending Ashland's 30-game home court winning streak and pushing DU into Monday's title game.
Coach Molly Miller's Lady Panthers (26-4) will play seventh-seed Grand Valley State (24-9) at 7 p.m. (EST) on Monday for the regional championship and a berth in the NCAA-II Elite Eight March 23-24 in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Ashland, ranked third nationally, finished its season 31-2 and had a 10-game win streak snapped by the hot-shooting Lady Panthers, who made 11 3-pointers, bolted out to a 23-13 lead midway through the first quarter and never looked back.
Drury led 40-30 at the half, and outscored the Eagles 46-30 over the final two quarters to stun a capacity crowd at Kates Gymnasium, where the Eagles had been virtually invincible.
"This is the kind of atmosphere our girls want to play in … thanks to Ashland for hosting, because their fan support is pretty incredible," Miller said. "We wanted to play off that energy, because we know what's like from playing in our house. For the girls to really rally around each other with that energy was important, and we knew coming into this game we had to generate our own energy, too, with a crowd like this.
"This was great for women's basketball."
And the chief antagonist for the mass of purple-clad Eagles fans was DU junior guard Paige Wilson, who continued her incredible shooting run with a 5-for-7 effort, all from 3-point range, to lead the Lady Panthers with 17 points – and meaning, now, that all nine DU players have led the team in scoring in at least one game this season.
Wilson has made 23 of her last 30 3-point tries (77 percent) over her last 13 games, and 35 of her last 49 shots overall (71 percent) in her last 10 games.
Wilson led four Lady Panthers in double-figures, as Hannah Dressler added 16 points, Heather Harman had 11 points and Alice Heinzler finished with 10 points.
Dressler, however, had the key stat of the night with her game-high 10 rebounds against a tall and talented Ashland front line – led by 6-1 sophomore stars Andi Daugherty and Laina Snyder – that had dominated foes all season in the paint. Snyder had nine rebounds, Daugherty just four … and they combined for only three offensive rebounds between them.
Nationally 14th-ranked Drury won the overall rebounding battle 33-27, pushing the Lady Panthers to 10-0 this season when they've outrebounded an opponent.
"We knew if we could come in and outrebound this team, we'd have a good shot," Miller said. "To keep them off the offensive boards was a huge statistic for us."
Daugherty finished with 18 points to lead the Eagles, who shot just 41 percent (22 of 54) from the field.
The Lady Panthers made 30 of 58 shots (52 percent), including 11 of 25 from 3-point range (44 percent). Drury also went 15 of 16 at the free-throw line and turned the ball over just nine times in the contest.
The Lady Panthers also had 23 assists on their 30 field goals, including five each from Briana Jones and Addy Roller and four from Harman.
"The biggest factor tonight that you can't find in a stat sheet is heart and hustle," Miller said. "This team love each other, they get along so well and rely on each other. The fact they brought energy, effort and outstanding hustle to this ballgame was the difference-maker."
