ST. CHARLES, Mo.—The 23rd ranked Drury Lady Panthers overcame foul trouble and received a much-needed lift from their bench as they defeated Rockhurst 91-81 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference quarterfinals on Friday at Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Missouri.
Drury advanced to the GLVC tournament semifinals, where they will play seventh-seeded Upper Iowa on Saturday at 2:15 pm. The Lady Panthers, the number three seed in the tournament, raised their record to 24-5. Rockhurst, the sixth seed, ended their season with a 15-12 record.
The Lady Panthers ran into early trouble as their leading scorer and rebounder, Reese Schaaf picked up two fouls within the game’s first three minutes. Schaaf, named the league’s Player of the Year earlier this week, only played 11 minutes and was whistled for her third and fourth with only a few minutes played in the second half.
Drury’s bench and other players chipped in, though, as the Lady Panthers overcame an early 9-0 deficit to lead 25-19 after one quarter and 45-35 at halftime.
Quincy Erickson entered for Schaaf and promptly went 3 for 3 from the field and had eight points at halftime. Freshman Sara Mendel also gave a boost to the Lady Panthers as she registered career highs with 18 points and eight rebounds.
“We’ve played all these games this year, and we never had to play a game without Reese Schaaf, and today, we pretty much did,” said Drury head coach Kaci Bailey. It was really hard because a lot of what we call are for her. But we got huge minutes out of Quincy Erickson, Sara Mendel was big for us, and even Gabby Burns came in and had to play the four-spot. It was a collective team effort today.”
Drury stretched their lead to 13, but Rockhurst chipped away and pulled within four in the fourth quarter, 72-68, with 7:22 remaining. A Beth Matas Martin jumper, then a Schaaf lay-up stretched the Lady Panthers lead back to eight. Drury made free throws down the stretch to hold off the Hawks.
Martin led the Lady Panthers with 21 points and was 7 of 13 from the floor and 4 for 8 from three-point range. Caitlynn Daniels added 18 points and went 2 for 3 from three-point range. Anna Hitt contributed 10 points and seven boards.
Keegan Sullivan led Rockhurst with 26 points and nine rebounds. Ali Kamies chipped in 16 points.
In Schaaf’s limited minutes, Drury still out-rebounded Rockhurst 46-37 and got 17 boards and 35 points from their bench.
The Lady Panthers will face an Upper Iowa team on Saturday that defeated second-seeded McKendree 79-66 in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Drury is seeking their eighth consecutive GLVC Tournament championship and the 13th conference title in program history.
