ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Alice Heinzler drained consecutive clutch 3-pointers to right the ship for No. 17 Drury, and the Lady Panthers held off top-ranked and unbeaten Lewis for a 75-72 victory over the Flyers in a matchup of Great Lakes Valley Conference divisional leaders Thursday night at Carey Arena.

The Lady Panthers improved to 19-3 overall and 13-1 in the GLVC with their 16th win in their last 17 games and seventh consecutive victory. Drury also locked up the GLVC West Division title with the win, as well as a first-round bye in the GLVC Championship post-season tournament.

But as much as anything else, the Lady Panthers opened eyes around the nation on Thursday, handing the Flyers (23-1, 13-1) their first loss in 35 games at home, a place where no one had even played them within double-digits until Drury pounced early and often Thursday. It's also a triumph that - should the Lady Panthers pick up a win Saturday at a tough Wisconsin-Parkside - just might put an end to the slow climb they've had to endure in the national Top 25 poll since falling out of the Top 10 after a 3-2 start.

Drury made 7 of 10 3-pointers in the first half in racing out to a 44-35 advantage at the break, making 18 of 34 shots (53 percent) overall while the Flyers hit just 14 of 37 (38 percent), missing several from close range in the process.

But Drury coach Molly Miller knew the Flyers would make a run, and it came midway through the second half. The Lady Panthers led 63-51 with 10:15 to go after two Sanayika Shields free throws, but Lewis would then go on an 18-2 run to grab a 69-65 lead on Jess Reinhart's layup with 3:26 to play.

It was 70-67 in favor of the Flyers after Nikki Nellen made a free throw with 2:35 left, before Heinzler answered with a 3-pointer at the 1:51 mark to tie it at 70, then another on Drury's next trip (at 1:16) to give the Lady Panthers a 73-70 lead, just like that. 

The Flyers closed to within one (73-72) on a Mariyah Brawner-Henley layup with 25 seconds left, but Shields answered by beating Lewis deep for a layup with 10 seconds remaining for the 75-72 Drury advantage. Lewis got a couple of 3-point tries off from there, but couldn't connect, sending the Lady Panthers and their fans into a frenzy when the final horn sounded.

"It's just an amazing feeling ... there are 14 girls in that locker room right now who are super-excited, and they should be," Miller said. "I can't tell you how proud I am. I told them the one thing they could control tonight was how hard they would play, We never gave up, we were scrappers the whole game, diving for loose balls ... words just cannot express how proud I am."

Shields finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds and Heinzler had another big game off the bench with her 18 points, adding six rebounds as well.

Paige Wilson added a career-high 17 points for the Lady Panthers, who shot 46 percent from the field (30 of 65) and held the Flyers - the nation's top-scoring team at 84.8 points per game coming in - to 41 percent (28 of 68), and nearly 13 points below their scoring average.

"Ice ... Alice just has ice in those veins," Miller said of Heinzler, the sophomore who transferred into the program from College of the Ozarks this season. "She's a competitor. She competes, she wants to win, and she's out there to help her team win in any way possible. And Sanayika was out there battling all game against the reigning GLVC Player of the Year (Brawner-Henley), just gritting it out ... I wouldn't trade her for anyone."

Reinhart finished with 18 points and Brawner-Henley added 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Flyers, who also got 17 points from Jamie Johnson. 

Drury outrebounded the Flyers 41-37, and pulled out the victory despite committing 15 turnovers to just seven by Lewis.

The Lady Panthers, the nation's No. 2 free-throw shooting team, made just five trips to the line (making all five), and finished 10 of 22 from 3-point range.

Drury continues its final regular season road trip at Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday in a 1 p.m. GLVC tipoff in Kenosha, Wis.