SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Graduate student Beth Matas-Martin dropped in a key ten-foot jumper with 28 seconds to play Thursday night, which helped provide the cushion needed as the Drury Lady Panthers battled back from a slow start to claim a 70-66 win over the Quincy Hawks at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
Leading 66-64 in the closing moments, Matas-Martin’s shot against her former teammates, gave Drury a four-point edge which held up as time expired and moved the Lady Panthers to 14-4 on the season and to 9-3 in Great Lakes Valley Conference action.
“I thought Quincy was the better team for 40 minutes tonight,” said Drury head coach Kaci Bailey. “But at the end of the day, we found a way. But again, I want to give them a lot of credit, they played with lots of emotion and energy in a game that of course had a lot of history mixed in.”
Trailing 20-9 after the first period and down 35-31 at halftime, Drury rallied back the final two periods behind another stellar effort from sophomore Reese Schaaf to escape with the win
Schaaf finished with 26 points, including 10 of 11 from the free throw line and 14 rebounds for her eighth double-double showing of the season to lead the way.
“There’s no doubt she’s capable every night of that kind of performance,” added Bailey. “And we’re gonna keep pounding the ball inside to her. I thought she came out with a different mindset the second half and she had a huge, huge rebound late that was big for us.”
Matas-Martin finished with 11 points for the game, while junior Caitlynn Daniels closed the night with 12, all of them coming after halftime.
Quincy’s Taya Stevenson topped their scoring, finishing with 13 points. The Hawks fell to 6-12 on the season and to 5-7 in GLVC play with the loss.
The Lady Panthers continue this current homestand on Saturday, January 27th, when they host Illinois-Springfield in a 1 pm contest at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
