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The Drury Lady Panthers battled back for an 87-79 win over Union on Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on day two of the Oasis Hotel & Convention Center Thanksgiving Classic.
The 11th ranked Lady Panthers improved to 5-1 and handed the Bulldogs their first loss of the season as Union dropped to 5-1.
The Bulldogs led for nearly 31 minutes of the game and were up by as much as 11 early in the second quarter. Drury rallied to close the gap and trailed 39-36 at halftime.
The second half saw 13 lead changes but the Lady Panthers took the lead, 72-71, on free throws by Brooke Stanfield with 3:46 remaining and never trailed again.
Drury guard Alice Heinzler had a season-high 28 points with 22 of them coming in the second half. The senior from Republic was 10 for 23 from the floor hitting six three-pointers.
Union shot 62 percent from the field going 32 for 52 from the floor. Drury, however, owned a 40-21 rebound advantage and hit 25 of 31 free throws in the game for the win.
“They’re a fantastic team,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller about Union. “The difference-maker was that we never got completely rattled. It was one of those games where you just have to grind it out and go to your playmakers at the end.”
Hailey Diestelkamp had 16 points for Drury while Daejah Bernard added 14 and Stanfield matched her career high with 12 points.
Chelsey Shumpert had 27 points for the Bulldogs going 12 for 18 from the floor.
The Lady Panthers open play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in their next game. Drury hosts Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
