Annie Armstrong scored 18 points to lead four Lady Panthers in double-figures and fourth-seed Drury held off a Quincy late charge for a 79-71 victory in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional opening round Friday night at Kates Gymnasium.
The victory – the first of the post-season variety for second-year DU coach Molly Miller – pushed Drury (25-4) into a semifinals matchup with top seed and host Ashland (31-1) at 7:30 p.m. EST Saturday. Before a packed house, Ashland got a basket with 1.7 seconds left to nip eighth-seed Ursuline 72-70 Friday for its 30th consecutive home win, narrowly avoiding becoming the third top seed to go down on a wild day in its home gym.
Second-seed Lewis was upset by No. 7 seed Grand Valley State, and third-seed Bellarmine fell to sixth-seeded Saginaw Valley State in the afternoon session. Those two GLVC members will meet in Saturday's first semifinal, at 5 p.m. (EST).
"It's survive and advance, and we survived," Drury coach Molly Miller said. "I'm proud of the way our girls were resilient and showed toughness. Quincy is a good team, and a lot of credit goes to them for the way they represented the GLVC all year with such class. But I'm really proud of our girls for just hanging with it."
Heather Harman and Paige Wilson had 11 points each off the bench for the Lady Panthers, who got 10 points from Briana Jones. Addy Roller had eight big first-half points and added six rebounds, six assists and two steals in her 25 minutes of work.
The Lady Panthers made 11 of 27 3-pointers – including 7 of 13 in the opening half – to jump out to the big advantage, and held Quincy to 39 percent (27 of 70) for the game, including a 5-for-25 showing from 3-point range.
"What it came down to tonight was getting after it defensively … I think our defense created our offense," Miller said. "Bellarmine shot 52 percent from the field against us, and we lost. We don't want to have that happen against anybody again, or it will probably be a similiar result."
Drury trailed 13-6 in the early going, but finished the quarter with a 13-3 run to lead 19-16 at the break. A big second quarter – a 25-13 advantage for the Lady Panthers – pushed that lead to 44-29 at the half, and Drury would lead by 24 (60-36) with 2:33 left in the third quarter after an Armstrong 3-pointer before Quincy mounted a late charge.
The Hawks had it down to a four-point deficit (75-71) with 29 seconds left after an Anika Webster layup, but Drury closed it out with a pair of free throws each from Alice Heinzler and then Armstrong – who was 8 for 8 at the stripe – to close it out.
"Great players want the ball in their hands in crunch time," Miller said of Armstrong, who scored eight of her 18 points in the final period.
Erin Menneymeyer had 15 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Lady Hawks, who lost for the fourth straight time to DU and second time this season.
Drury will now take on an Ashland team that will likely have a sellout crowd behind it in Saturday night's regional semifinals.
"They're tough … they have really good post play," Miller said. "They run everything inside-out, and they are go-getters. We're going to have to come out focused early. I'm glad we'll see them in the semis, because it'll be a great atmosphere."
