Annie Armstrong scored 21 points to lead three Lady Panthers in double-figures, and No. 19 Drury posted a 74-65 victory over a pesky McKendree in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Saturday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.

Addy Roller added 15 points to go with five rebounds, four assists and four steals as the Lady Panthers won for the 15th time in their last 16 games and improved to 18-3 overall and 12-1 in the GLVC. McKendree fell to 2-19 and 1-12. 

Sanayika Shields had 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds for the Lady Panthers, who built a 39-27 halftime lead and pushed that advantage as high as 20 points (55-35 with 13:14 left) before the Bearcats chipped away. McKendree had it down to a seven-point deficit on a pair of occasions inside the final two minutes, but could get no closer.

"It was a little bit ugly at time, but a win is a win, I guess you'd say," Drury first-year coach Molly Miller said. "We just need to use this momentum from our four-game homestand into what is going to be a huge week for us next week."

Armstrong hit 8 of 11 shots (including 3 of 5 from 3-point range) and added six rebounds and six assists in her 29 minutes of action to pace the Lady Panthers.

"They stuck to Annie like glue today ... she had to work hard for her points," Miller said. "Give McKendree a lot of credit for coming out here with a good gameplan, playing some good defense and making things hard for us."

Gabrielle Williams and Caty Ponce had 11 points each to lead McKendree, hit 14 of 24 shots (58 percent) in the second half to keep it close. 

Drury finished with a 32-31 rebounding advantage, and committed 16 turnovers to 19 by the Bearcats, who outscored the Lady Panthers 38-35 in the second half.

Drury will visit Romeoville, Ill., on Thursday for a showdown with nationally top-ranked Lewis (23-0, 13-0) in a matchup of GLVC divisional leaders before traveling to Kenosha, Wis., to face Wisconsin-Parkside (18-4, 11-2) on Saturday.

NOTES

*Shields now has 531 rebounds for her career, moving her within four of Kara Rutledge (535 from 2002-06) for fifth place on the all-time DU charts. 

*Armstrong went 2-for-2 at the line Saturday and is now 72 of 75 at the stripe for the season, her .960 percent the best in the nation. In her two years as a Lady Panther, she's now made 122 of her 130 free-throw attempts (.938). Lindsay Ballweg holds the DU career record for best FT percentage at .886 percent from 2007-10.

*Drury has scored 74 points in three of its last four games. Lewis is averaging a league-best 84.8 points per game, with Drury next at 77.4. The teams rank 1-2 in the GLVC in scoring, scoring margin, FG percentage, FT percentage and assist/TO ratio.

*The two teams on the GLVC East roadswing next week, Lewis (10-0) and Parkside (6-0), are a combined 16-0 at home this season. The Flyers' average margin of victory at home for their six GLVC games has been 22.0 points, with Maryville (88-77 on Jan. 10) their closest league game there to date.

*Drury leads the all-time series with Lewis 8-6, including an 89-70 win at The O' last season. The Lady Panthers have played the Flyers in Romeoville only twice in eight regular season meetings - a 71-66 victory on January 20, 2011 and a 76-64 loss on November 30, 2006, though the Lady Panthers did later win three games on that same court later in that 2006-07 season (including a 67-62 win over Lewis) to claim the Great Lakes Regional title and an NCAA-II Elite Eight berth. Ten of their 14 meetings have come in either Springfield or at a neutral site.