ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Drury’s bid to win a seventh-straight Great Lakes Valley Conference championship was inches away from being derailed in the tournament quarterfinals as eighth-seeded Quincy missed a 10-foot shot in the closing seconds to let the Lady Panthers escape with a 79-78 win on Thursday at Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Missouri.
Drury, the tournament’s number one seed and second-ranked team in NCAA-II, won their 24th straight game to improve to 28-1. The Hawks ended their season at 13-16.
With the game tied at 78, Drury guard Kaylee DaMitz-Holt was fouled after grabbing an offensive rebound with 10 seconds remaining. The graduate student from Preston, Missouri, made her first free throw, then missed the second. A held-ball on the ensuing rebound gave Quincy the possession with five seconds remaining, and guard Beth Matas Martin pulled up for a baseline shot with three seconds left but missed it short. Mia Henderson’s rebound for Drury sealed the win.
“(On the last play) I told them that we don’t want to give up a three, but we really don’t want to give up an easy two,” said Drury head coach Amy Eagan. “And the last thing we told them was, you don’t lose on the shot, you lose on the rebound, so finish the block-out. Their shot wound up short and we were able to get the rebound.”
Quincy, who lost twice to Drury in the regular season by scores of 77-55 and 87-49, trailed 49-40 at halftime, but opened the second half on a 15-3 run on their way to outscoring the Lady Panthers 24-12 in the third quarter. The Hawks had Drury behind entering the fourth quarter for the first time since Dec. 16 and was the first GLVC team to have a fourth quarter lead on the Lady Panthers this year.
Matas Martin finished with a game-high 26 points for Quincy, while Cymirah Williams had 17 points and 13 rebounds. The Hawks shot 51 percent going 30 for 59 from the field and out-rebounded Drury 36-27. Quincy had 15 offensive rebounds.
“A lot of credit to Quincy; I thought they played harder than us, competed more than us and executed their game plan better than we did,” said Eagan. “I didn’t think we were very focused and I was disappointed in our effort.”
Terrion Moore matched a career-high with 24 points, while Henderson set her career-high with 20. DaMitz-Holt finished with 16. The Lady Panthers shot 51 percent, going 27 for 53 from the floor.
Drury will play in the GLVC semifinals against the winner of fourth-seeded Indianapolis and number five seed Missouri S&T on Saturday at 6 pm in St. Charles, Missouri.
