The Drury Lady Panthers advanced to the NCAA-II Midwest Regional championship game for the third straight season with a fourth quarter rally to beat Lewis 63-49 at Kates Gymnasium in Ashland, Ohio on Saturday.
Drury, ranked third in NCAA-II and seeded second in the regional, trailed the Flyers 39-36 with 8:25 remaining but outscored Lewis 27-10 the rest of the game to move on to the next round.
“Again, it was the fight, the resilience, and the hard work in the fourth quarter by our group that was the difference,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We could have tucked our tails a time or two, but Hailey Diestelkamp came up with some big plays for us in the fourth quarter, and Alice Heinzler was clutch at the free throw line.”
Hailey Diestelkamp had her second double-double of the tournament leading the Lady Panthers with 18 points and 11 rebounds. It was the ninth double-double of the season for the sophomore from Owensville, Missouri, who had 14 points and 15 rebounds against Findlay in the opening round on Friday. Diestelkamp had 10 points in the fourth quarter alone as Drury came alive late in the game.
“We were able to take advantage of some match-ups in the fourth quarter,” said Miller. “(Lewis) put (center) Jessica Kelliher on Diestelkamp when she had four fouls, and that allowed us to put Hailey on the perimeter where she could go one-on-one. That also created opportunities for Lucia Fernandez inside in her match-up down low.”
The Lady Panthers shot just 33 percent from the field as they made a season-low 17 field goals going 17 for 51 from the floor. Drury went only 3 for 16 from three-point range and also matched a season-low in three’s made. The Lady Panthers were able to convert on 26 of 29 free throw attempts, they out-rebounded Lewis 36-29, and they outscored the Flyers 26-15 in points-off-turnovers.
Alice Heinzler added 13 points for Drury while Lucia Fernandez scored six points in the fourth quarter to finish with 10 in the game.
Jessica Kelliher had 18 points and 14 rebounds for Lewis but the nation’s leading scorer in Division II who was averaging more than 25 per game, had just seven points in the second half.
The Lady Panthers raised their record to 31-2. Their 31 victories are the second most in program history behind only Drury’s 2004 national runner-up team that finished 36-2.
Drury will play the winner of top-seeded Ashland and number four seed Grand Valley State on Monday in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional championship at 6 p.m. (Central) in Ashland, Ohio.
