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SPRINGFIELD – The Drury Lady Panthers started conference play with a 72-58 win over Missouri-St. Louis at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on Thursday.
The Lady Panthers, tied for 14th in the NCAA-II national poll, improved to 7-1 and went to 1-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Tritons dropped to 3-3 and 0-1 in the league.
Drury used a 21-9 second quarter to pull away from UMSL. After the Tritons tied the game at 21-21, the Lady Panthers went on an 18-3 run to take a 39-24 lead with 3:31 left in the first half.
The Tritons pulled as close as 11 with 4:00 left in regulation, but Drury responded after a time-out with two made free throws by Daejah Bernard and, moments later, a steal and lay-up by Hailey Diestelkamp put the game out of reach.
“We started the game well but UMSL always comes in here and plays hard. They deserve a lot of credit,” said Drury head coach Molly Miller. “They made it difficult for us to run our offense. We were able to force some turnovers and that was a big key for us, but on the flip side, we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball ourselves.”
The Lady Panthers forced 22 turnovers from the Tritons but committed 23.
Heather Harmon led Drury with 19 points while Diestelkamp added 15.
Drury shot 51 percent from the field connecting on 26 of 51 shots. They out-rebounded UMSL 38-21 with Diestelkamp collecting a game-high eight boards.
Laura Szorenyl led the Tritons with 23 points.
The Lady Panthers return to action with another home conference game on Saturday. Drury hosts Maryville for a 1 p.m. tipoff at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
