SPRINGFIELD – The Drury Lady Panthers won their ninth straight game with a 51-point victory, 94-43, over Rockhurst on Saturday afternoon in front of an Overflow the O’ crowd of 2,420 at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
The win brought the 13th ranked Lady Panthers record to 17-2 and 9-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Hawks dropped to 11-5 and 6-3 in the league. With the win, Drury increased its lead in the GLVC-West to three games over second place Rockhurst.
“I have to thank this crowd,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “The Fanthers section was full and we still had time remaining in our warm-up. Our defense is what sparked our offense today. When you hold a team like Rockhurst to seven and six points in the first and second quarter, that’s impressive. They have been scoring in the 70’s lately.”
Drury pulled away in the second period outscoring the Hawks 25-6 to take a 36-13 lead at halftime. The Lady Panthers forced 16 Rockhurst turnovers in the first half alone and ended the game scoring 38 points on 26 Hawks turnovers.
Briana Jones scored a career high 23 points. The senior from San Antonio, Texas also had nine rebounds. Deajah Bernard and Hannah Dressler both added 15 points while Heather Harman ad 14.
Mary Dineen had 12 points to lead Rockhurst.
The 51-point win is Drury’s largest margin of a victory this season and marked the sixth time this year they have won by more than 30 points.
The Lady Panthers return to action on Thursday, Jan. 21 when they travel to Truman State. Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m. in Kirksville, Missouri.
