EVANSVILLE, Ind.— The Drury Lady Panthers outscored Southern Indiana 21-4 to start the second half as they pulled away for a 94-69 win at Screaming Eagles Arena in Evansville, Indiana on Thursday.
Drury, ranked number one in NCAA-II, improved to 11-0 and 2-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while Southern Indiana fell to 5-3 and 1-1 in the league.
The Lady Panthers owned a 41-35 halftime lead but quickly pulled away in the second half and ended up outscoring the Screaming Eagles 33-11 in the third quarter. Drury led 74-46 at the end of the period and went up by as much as 33 in the fourth quarter.
DU shot a season-best 59 percent from the field hitting 32 of 54 shots, including 10 of their 22 three-point attempts.
Emily Parker matched her career-high with 19 points to lead the Lady Panthers while Paige Robinson added 18, and Hailey Diestelkamp had 15 points and 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Diestelkamp ended the game 14 points away from breaking Drury’s all-time scoring record of 1,815 held by Amanda Newton (2002-06).
“We did a good job against their zone,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “We got the ball to the right spots, had some good looks, and our field goal percentage was good – it reflected the movement we had against that zone.”
Ashlynn Brown led Southern Indiana with a game-high 22 points.
While Drury led by three at halftime, they had committed 11 turnovers and had only forced six. By the end of the game, the Lady Panthers only had 17 while the Screaming Eagles finished with 23.
“I don’t think we were very cautious in terms of taking care of the ball in the first half and seeing the help-defender,” said Miller. “That was a halftime stat that spoke volumes to our team. (The turnover margin) is a stat we take pride, and we did a better job of that in the second half.”
Drury returns to action on Saturday when they travel to McKendree for a 1 pm game in Lebanon, Illinois.
