Women's Basketball 12/4/2015 2:42:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 6 Lady Panthers Look To Stay Perfect Saturday At Maryville For GLVC Matchup

Women's Basketball 12/4/2015 2:42:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 6 Lady Panthers Look To Stay Perfect Saturday At Maryville For GLVC Matchup

Alice Heinzler

The nationally sixth-ranked Lady Panthers GLVC matchup Saturday at Maryville, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Drury (6-0, 1-0 in the GLVC), up two spots to No. 6 in this week's USA TODAY/WBCA Top 25 Coaches Poll, will play at Maryville (5-1, 1-0) in a 1 p.m. tipoff at the Moloney Arena on the campus of Maryville University in Chesterfield, Mo.

*RADIO/TV/INTERNET: The game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM and online at www.radiospringfield.com. A free, live webcast will be available at www.maryvillesaints.com.

*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS: Drury stayed hot on Thursday with a 74-65 victory at Missouri-St. Louis in the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener for both teams. Junior forward/center Hannah Dressler led Drury with a career-high 16 points and added a team-high six rebounds for the Lady Panthers, who led 34-29 after two quarters and used a strong third-quarter effort to build a double-digit lead on a surge keyed by consecutive buckets from freshman Emily Miller and back-to-back treys in the period by junior guard Paige Wilson. They were part of a Drury bench that outscored the Tritons 24-9 for the game, including 15-2 in the decisive third quarter.

*SCOUTING MARYVILLE: The Saints opened GLVC play Thursday with a 74-64 victory at Missouri S&T in Rolla. Freshman Stephanie Sherwood made six 3-pointers on her way to a career-high 24 points (including 6-of-7 shooting from 3-point range). Alex Hillyer added 21 points and eight rebounds and Alex Wolf had eight rebounds as Maryville amassed 20 offensive boards in claiming a 37-30 rebounding advantage for coach Chris Ellis' squad. Hillyer, a 6-3 senior and Missouri State transfer, averages 16.0 points and 8.3 rebounds to lead four players scoring in double-figures for the Saints, who went 1-1 in the Ramada Plaza Hotel/Oasis Convention Center Thanksgiving Classic at Drury last weekend.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series 9-3, including a 77-70 win at Maryville last season.

*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS: Senior guard Annie Armstrong averages 14.3 points and junior guard Alice Heinzler adds 14.2 points per game for a very balanced squad that has another eight players averaging roughly between five and nine points per game. Dressler is the team's top rebounder at 4.2 per contest to go with her 9.3 points per game. Armstrong, a returning All-GLVC First Team player, is shooting an uncanny 61 percent (19 of 31) from 3-point range and is one of nine Lady Panthers shooting better than 50 percent from the field on a squad shooting 55 percent as a unit. Drury entered the week leading the nation in 3-point FG percentage and is now at an even 50 percent (59 of 118) from behind the arc.

*EQUAL TIME: Drury has played all 11 of its roster members between 8.5 and 26.7 minutes per game on average, as Miller has been able to keep her starters fresh with the utilization of a deep bench. All 11 players have scored at least a total of 15 points on the season through six games.

*MILLER TIME: The 6-0 start has pushed coach Molly Miller's record to 32-4 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.

*ARMSTRONG CLIMBING CHARTS: DU senior guard Annie Armstrong, with 86 points through three games this year, now has 778 in her three seasons with the Lady Panthers after the Springfield Kickapoo HS product transferred back home from Eckerd (Fla.) College. Armstrong, who led the nation in free-throw percentage (.956 last season), has moved past Becky Flippin (773 points from 2005-08) for No. 15 on the all-time DU scoring charts; Sanayika Shields is No. 14 on the list with 886 points.

*NICE SHOOTIN': Armstrong and Heinzler's eight 3-pointers each against Trevecca last Saturday in the Drury Thanksgiving Classic broke the old mark of seven shared by former DU stars Bethanie Funderburk, Lindsay Ballweg (twice) and Katie Pritchard. Funderburk's was the most recent, coming on December 1, 2011 vs. UMSL. Armstrong broke it first, getting her eighth trey in the final seconds of the third quarter, before Heinzler came on with two treys in the fourth quarter to match it. Drury's 17 3-pointers as a team broke the old mark of 14 set three times by the Lady Panthers, most recently in that December 1, 2011 game vs. UMSL in which Funderburk tied the individual mark. The 30 3-point tries were one off the DU all-time record of 31 set twice, vs. Cal State-Monterrey Bay in 2003 and Panhandle State in 2004. Drury is shooting .544 from the field as a team, including an amazing .510 (51 of 100) from 3-point range, which leads the nation in D-II.

*LADY PANTHERS IN THE NATIONAL STATS: Drury entered this week ranking first in 3-point FG percentage (.510), third nationally in FG percentage (.544), seventh in scoring (86.2 ppg) and 3-pointers per game (10.2). Armstrong ranks fifth nationally in 3-point FG percentage at .633 (17 of 27) while Heinzler is 10th at .581 (18 of 31).

*ON DECK FOR THE LADY PANTHERS: Drury will break for final exams next week before visiting Missouri S&T for a 1 p.m. GLVC tipoff on Saturday, December 12 in Rolla. The Lady Panthers will then play host to Arkansas Tech at The O' on Tuesday, December 15 in an 11 a.m. start for the second annual Hiland Dairy Kids Day game, before leaving 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.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

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

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

#32 Hannah Dressler: F; 6' 1"; Junior; Forward

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

#20 Paige Wilson: G; 5' 8"; Junior; Guard

#44 Emily Miller: G; 5' 10"; Freshman; Guard

Players Mentioned

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

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

#32 Hannah Dressler
: 6' 1"; Junior; Forward
: F

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

#20 Paige Wilson
: 5' 8"; Junior; Guard
: G

#44 Emily Miller
: 5' 10"; Freshman; Guard
: G