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The Lady Panthers could not overcome a slow start and second ranked Emporia State handed Drury their first home loss in almost two years in a 74-59 win for the Hornets on Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
Emporia State stayed unbeaten as they improved to 6-0 while Drury took their first loss of the year to drop to 6-1. The Hornets won both of their games at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Oasis Convention Center Thanksgiving Classic while Drury went 1-1 in the event.
Emporia State jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the game’s first five minutes and led 26-10 at the end of the opening quarter. Drury pulled within 10 points of the lead late in the second period but a Kelly Moten three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Hornets a 35-22 lead at halftime.
The Lady Panthers rallied from 20 points down in the second half get as close seven with 1:54 remaining, but Emporia State converted on free throws down the stretch to put Drury away.
The loss snapped the Lady Panthers’ 28-game home court winning streak as they suffered their first loss at the O’Reilly Family Event Center since Nov. 28, 2014 when Pittsburg State handed Drury a 78-73 loss.
“We just came out on our heels in that first quarter,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We didn’t execute our game plan well and didn’t do what we’ve talked about for the last two days. Offensively, we just watched the ball-handler and didn’t play our style of basketball. We stood around a lot and when you stand a lot against Emporia State, bad things are going to happen.”
Heather Harman led Drury with 16 points but was the only Lady Panther in double-figures.
Kelly Moten led all scorers and had 21 points for Emporia State. Addie Lackey and 19 points while Kyrstie Miller added 16.
The Lady Panthers play again on Thursday and open play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference with a home game against Missouri-St. Louis. Tipoff is at 5:45 p.m. in the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
