ST. LOUIS - No. 21 Drury put together a 20-3 surge early in the second half to break open a tight game and roll on to a 66-48 victory over Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday afternoon in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

Coach Molly Miller's Lady Panthers improved to 14-3 overall and 8-1 in the GLVC in handing UMSL its first home loss in eight games this season. The Tritons fell to 8-10 overall and 4-5 in the league.

And it was Miller's first head coaching technical foul that might have lit a fire under her Lady Panthers. 

Tied at 35 with 14:48 left in the second half, Miller protested a non-call with what she thought was a ball-handling violation, and was stuck with her first "T." After UMSL made the two free throws, the Lady Panthers promptly scored the next 13 points to lead 48-37, part of a 20-3 run over the next nine-plus minutes that broke the game open with a 55-40 lead for DU with six minutes to play.

Addy Roller scored 19 points and Annie Armstrong added 15 points to lead the Lady Panthers, who trailed 25-24 at halftime.

"They were undefeated at home coming in, so it was nice to get one at their place," Drury coach Molly Miller said. "I guess I got my first 'T" out of the way. I always envisioned it being a little bit more fiery and dramatic, but I'll always have my girls' back. And after that, they had my back, because they played a little angry and turned the intensity around.

"We came out overall in the second half with a little more intensity and fire, and I think in the second half, our full-court pressure really wore on them. They're not very deep, and when you've got players playing 40 minutes per game, you just want to get up and make everything hard for them. I also thought Annie did a better job of attacking in the second half ... we need her to do that the whole game."

But the key stat for Drury in this one was likely its 43-25 domination of the Tritons on the boards, against an UMSL team that was outrebounding its opponents by an average of nine (39 to 30) coming into the contest.

"To outrebound this team today was huge for us," Miller said.

Hannah Dressler pulled down nine rebounds off the bench to lead the Lady Panthers, who got four rebounds each from guards Roller, Armstrong, Paige Wilson and Heather Harman as well as four from usual boards leader Sanayika Shields, who also added 10 points.

Drury shot just 41 percent from the field (23 of 56), but held the Tritons to 34 percent (16 of 46).

After committing 11 turnovers in the first half, the Lady Panthers had just five miscues after halftime to finish with 16, forcing 18 by UMSL.

Alexis Lawrence had 16 points to lead the Tritons, who made 4 of 7 3-point tries in the first half, but went 1-for-8 from behind the arc after halftime.

Drury returns home now to play seven of its final nine games at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, starting with Thursday's GLVC matchup against Truman State. It's American Cancer Society "Blackout Night," with all fans of both teams encouraged to wear black in support of the cause for the 5:45 p.m. tipoff. The Lady Panthers will host Quincy on Saturday for the annual "Great Southern Bank Throwback Day" at approximately 1 p.m., following an 11 a.m. prep contest at The O'.

"It's going to be nice to be back at The O' ... our girls did a little cheer when we brought that up," Miller said. "It's always nice to be able to play in front of our great fans."

For tickets, call (417) 873-6389 or visit www.drurytickets.com. And be sure to check out the "Feb Five Pack" of reserved seats all five remaining home games in the month of February for only $25!