Women's Basketball 12/10/2015 7:10:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 4 Lady Panthers Visit S&T Saturday For GLVC Tussle

Women's Basketball 12/10/2015 7:10:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 4 Lady Panthers Visit S&T Saturday For GLVC Tussle

The Saturday matchup between the unbeaten No. 4 Lady Panthers and Missouri S&T in Rolla, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (7-0, 2-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) visits Missouri Science & Techology (4-3, 1-1) in a 1 p.m. tipoff Saturday at the Bulmann Multi-Purpose Building on the S&T campus in Rolla.

*RADIO/TV/INTERNET: The game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM (online at www.radiospringfield.com). A free, live webcast can be viewed at www.mineratlhletics.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network.

*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS: Drury will get back to action on Saturday after breaking for final exams all of this week. The Lady Panthers climbed two spots to No. 4 in this week's USA TODAY Top 25 national poll after opening GLVC play with two impressive road wins last week in St. Louis, downing UMSL 74-65 on Thursday and then walloping a one-loss Maryville 80-47 on Saturday in Chesterfield. The Lady Panthers lead all NCAA-II schools in both FG percentage (.541) and 3-point FG percentage (.485), while senior guard Annie Armstrong (who leads DU in scoring at 14.6 points per game) is second nationally with her .583 shooting on treys. Junior guard Alice Heinzler (.553) ranks fifth nationally in 3-point shooting percentage.

*SCOUTING MISSOURI S&T: The Lady Miners of coach Alan Eads opened GLVC play with a split last week, defeating UMSL 53-41 in St. Louis after falling 74-64 to Maryville in Rolla two nights earlier. Raetchel Gray, a 5-7 junior, is averaging 10.1 points to lead S&T, which gets 9.8 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds from 5-11 sophomore Bria Pierce. The Lady Miners defeated NAIA Westminster 76-57 on Tuesday in Rolla, with Sandra Douvier (a 6-2 junior) picking up her second straight double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series 19-6, with five consecutive victories for the Lady Panthers. Drury swept the Lady Miners last season, winning 80-58 in Rolla and 92-56 at The O'.

*GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY: The 7-0 start has pushed coach Molly Miller's record to 33-4 in two seasons as the former Lady Panthers standout herself has made a smooth transition to the head coaching ranks. That includes a 16-1 record in games at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, where their only loss was a 78-73 decision to Pittsburg State on the second day of the 2014 Thanksgiving Classic. That remains the only game in Miller's coaching career decided by five points or less that her team has lost; she's 6-1 in those situations. Drury has won 21 of its last 22 games under Miller, whose 33-4 record after 37 games is the best in Lady Panthers' coaching history (Steve Harold was 31-6, Nyla Milleson 27-10).

*ARMSTRONG CLIMBING CHARTS: Armstrong now has 794 points in her three seasons with the Lady Panthers after the Springfield Kickapoo HS product transferred back home from Eckerd (Fla.) College, and moved into 15th place on the all-time DU scoring charts with her efforts in St. Louis last weekend. Armstrong needs 93 points to surpass Sanayika Shields (886 points from 2011-15) for 14th place on the charts. Armstrong scored 241 points in her lone season at Eckerd, meaning she's scored 1,035 points in her four intercollegiate seasons of basketball. After making 34 of 39 free throws (.872 percent) at Eckerd as a freshman, Armstrong has made 152 of 161 free-throw tries (.944 percent) in her three seasons at DU, including a nation-best .956 last season (87 of 91). For her college career combined, Armstrong is 186 of 200 at the stripe (93 percent).

*WHERE WE DRAW THE LINE: The nation's top free-throw shooting team last season, the Lady Panthers are once again very accurate at the charity stripe, shooting .752 on free throws as a team. Armstrong, the nation's leading FT shooter last year at .956, has been perfect this season (15 for 15), while sophomore Heather Harman is at .944 (17 of 18) and Heinzler is 14 of 15 (.933) from the line. Armstrong has made her last 17 free throws and 41 of her last 42 attempts dating back to last season.

*ON DECK FOR THE LADY PANTHERS: Drury will play host to No. 19 Arkansas Tech at The O' on Tuesday, December 15 in an 11 a.m. start for the second annual Hiland Dairy Kids Day game, with some 1,600 area elementary students from 15 schools expected to provide the backdrop for a DU home advantage. The Lady Panthers will leave the following day for Florida to close out the first semester schedule with games against Tampa and host Florida Tech on Dec. 19-20 in the Florida Tech Holiday Classic in Melbourne, Fla.

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Players Mentioned

#44 Sanayika Shields: C; 6' 1"; Senior; Center

#25 Annie Armstrong: G; 5' 8"; Senior; Guard

#15 Heather Harman: G; 5' 9"; Sophomore; Guard

#14 Alice Heinzler: G; 5' 7"; Junior; Guard

Players Mentioned

#44 Sanayika Shields
: 6' 1"; Senior; Center
: C

#25 Annie Armstrong
: 5' 8"; Senior; Guard
: G

#15 Heather Harman
: 5' 9"; Sophomore; Guard
: G

#14 Alice Heinzler
: 5' 7"; Junior; Guard
: G