Women's Basketball 1/22/2016 12:04:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 19 Lady Panthers Conclude KC-Area Swing With Saturday GLVC Test At William Jewell

Women's Basketball 1/22/2016 12:04:00 PM Scott Puryear, Associate AD For Marketing & Communications

No. 19 Lady Panthers Conclude KC-Area Swing With Saturday GLVC Test At William Jewell

Briana Jones

Saturday's GLVC matchup between the No. 19 Lady Panthers and William Jewell, at a glance ...

*THE MATCHUP: Nationally 19th-ranked Drury (13-3, 6-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) visits William Jewell (7-12, 2-6) for a 1 p.m. tipoff at the Mabee Center in Liberty, Mo.

*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 jewellcardinals.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN).

*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS: The strong bounceback from an 0-2 trip to Lewis and Parkside two weeks ago continued on Thursday for Coach Molly Miller's Lady Panthers, who throttled Rockhurst 82-64 in Kansas City behind 24 points (and 7-of-10 shooting from 3-point range) by junior guard Alice Heinzler and a 15-point, 13-rebound effort from junior forward/center Hannah Dressler. Drury shot just 45 percent from the field, but hit on 62 percent of its 3-point tries (13 of 21) to break open a competitive game early in the third quarter. Annie Armstrong had a quiet 11 points while battling foul woes and Brook Duncan came off the bench for 10 points. With Dressler's fifth double-digit rebounding effort leading the way and Heinzler adding six boards, Drury outrebounded Rockhurst 44-38, just the fourth time in 16 games the Lady Panthers have beaten their foe on the boards. Armstrong averages 15.1 points and Heinzler adds 13.4 points to lead the Lady Panthers, while Dressler paces DU on the boards with her 6.7 per game.

*MABEE ... MABEE NOT: The Lady Panthers will have no difficulties getting "up" for Saturday's game with William Jewell, which handed DU one of its three regular season losses last season when the Cardinals went nuts from 3-point range late to break open a tight game and win 80-64 at the Mabee Center. The Lady Panthers countered by reeling off 14 consecutive wins after that, a streak that didn't end until DU had won the GLVC post-season tourney title and reached the first round of the NCAA-II tourney, as well as an 88-62 win over Jewell at The O' four weeks after the loss to the Lady Panthers. In that last trip to Mabee, Drury trailed 43-31 at the half, cut it to three (59-56) with six minutes to play, and then watched the Cardinals make four 3-pointers in the next four minutes to break it open. Paige Wilson had 16 points to lead DU, while Logan Antenen had 15 points for WJC. At The O' a month later, Drury blitzed the Cardinals with a 49-28 halftime lead and never looked back. Sanayika Shields had 24 points and Antenen and Maddie Nelson led the Cardinals with 10 points each.

*SCOUTING WILLIAM JEWELL: Coach Jill Slominski's Cardinals are coming off a 71-62 home loss to Missouri S&T on Thursday, their third in their last four games sandwiched around a 68-49 home win over Rockhurst on Monday. Nelson is the only Jewell player averaging in double-figures with her 10.9 points per game to go with a team-leading 7.7 rebounds per contest. The Cardinals are shooting just 36 percent from the field, including 31 percent from 3-point range.

*THE SERIES: Drury leads the all-time series with William Jewell 6-3. The Lady Panthers have lost two of their last three games against the Cardinals in Liberty, including a 59-57 setback there in January of 2013.

*MILLER TIME: The 13-3 start has pushed DU coach Molly Miller's record to 39-7 in two seasons as the former Lady Panthers standout herself has made a smooth transition to the head coaching ranks. That includes a 19-1 record in games at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, where their only loss under Miller's watch 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 7-1 in those situations.

*ARMSTRONG CLIMBING CHARTS: Armstrong now has 934 points in her three seasons with the Lady Panthers after the Springfield Kickapoo HS product transferred back home from Eckerd (Fla.) College, and has moved into 14th place on the all-time DU scoring charts, surpassing Sanayika Shields (886 points from 2011-15) with her 25-point effort against UIndy at The O' last Thursday. Armstrong needs 50 points to move past Caitlin Shouse (983 from 2006-10) and into 13th place. Armstrong scored 241 points in her lone season at Eckerd, meaning she's scored 1,175 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 191 of 203 free-throw tries (94 percent) in her three seasons at DU, including a nation-best .956 last season (87 of 91) and 52 of 55 this season. For her college career combined, Armstrong is 225 of 242 at the stripe (.930 percent).

*ON DECK FOR THE LADY PANTHERS: The Lady Panthers will return home next week for big GLVC West tests against league-leader Quincy (Thursday, January 28) and Truman State (Saturday, January 30), part of a four-game home stand that also includes East powers Southern Indiana (February 4) and Bellarmine (February 6) the following weekend. For tickets, please call (417) 873-6389 ... kids 12-and-under always are free to regular season games at The O'.

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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

#34 Brook Duncan: F; 6' 0"; Senior; Forward

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

#34 Brook Duncan
: 6' 0"; Senior; Forward
: F