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Senior guard Alice Heinzler burned the nets in a record-setting afternoon Saturday as the Drury Lady Panthers raced to a 101-46 Great Lakes Valley Conference win over William Jewell at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Overflow the O’ day.
Before a crowd of more than 3,000, the Republic, Missouri product hit for a school record 41 points in a single game, while also establishing a school record 9 three-pointers made, to carry the 10th ranked Lady Panthers to the lopsided decision. Heinzler’s shooting, 13 of 17 for the game and 9 of 13 from long range, also paced Drury to a team 3-point shooting record of 15 makes for a single game.
“I caught myself watching her (Heinzler), and she deserves those records,” said head coach Molly Miller. “She’s a player that could have hung it up after a serious injury, but decided to come back for a fifth year, and she’s proved a lot to a lot of people.”
The win, the 100th for Miller in her career at Drury was never an issue as William Jewell was unable to overcome a slow start. The Cardinals committed a total of 20 turnovers in the first half and 38 for the contest. They trailed 45-25 at halftime and scored just nine points in the third quarter to allow the Lady Panthers (18-2, 9-1) to pull away.
“We forced 38 turnovers, and we’re always gonna generate offense through our defense and I’m happy about that,” said Miller.
Almost lost in Henizler’s record-setting day was a double-double by sophomore Hailey Diestelkamp, 10 points and 12 rebounds, while freshman Payton Richards added 13 points to the winning effort.
Junior Kayla Harrell paced the Cardinals (9-9, 6-5) with 11 points.
The Lady Panthers are home again on Thursday when they host Truman State at 5:45 p.m. at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
