LAKELAND, Fla. – Drury guard Kaylee DaMitz-Holt scored a career-high 34 points as the fifth-ranked Lady Panthers defeated eight-ranked Eckerd 85-73 on Friday at the Mocs Christmas Classic in Lakeland, Florida.
Drury went to 10-1 while dropping the Tritons to 8-2.
Eckerd led 22-18 after the first quarter; then the Lady Panthers raced in front, outscoring the Tritons 25-12 in the second period. DaMitz-Holt scored 15 points in the second quarter alone to help give Drury a 43-34 advantage at halftime.
Eckerd fought back from 13 points down, however, and took the lead, 51-50, with 2:59 left in the third quarter before the Lady Panthers rallied to go up by one, 59-58, heading into the fourth.
DaMitz-Holt gave her team another spark scoring 13 points in the final quarter as the Lady Panthers pulled away for the 12-point win. The graduate student out of Skyline High School also added six assists.
“We battle through a lot of things as we have a number of kids sick and had to deal with some travel issues yesterday,” said Drury head coach Amy Eagan. “At one point, I looked out on the floor and wondered how we were going to do this because we just had no energy. But we had some people really step up. Kaylee and Terrion Moore had an outstanding game, offensively and defensively. Then we had some others that stepped up and made some big plays for us.
“There is something about this team…they work so well together, and they understand that if we’re hurting in one area, somebody has to step up and get it done. They were just resilient today.”
Terrion Moore added 16 points, five rebounds, four assists, and five steals.
Maya Price had 28 points and eight rebounds to lead Eckerd.
The Tritons shot 52 percent hitting 24 of their 46 shots and went 8 for 22 from three-point range. Drury shot 48 percent connecting on 28 of the 59 attempts and they went 9 of 19 from behind the arc. The Lady Panthers had a 31-26 advantage in rebounds and had 13 offensive boards while limiting Eckerd to five.
Drury returns to action on Saturday when they take on host Flordia Southern at 1 pm (Central) in Lakeland.
