Thursday's matchup between the No. 12 Lady Panthers and Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars, at a glance ...
*THE MATCHUP:Â Nationally 12th-ranked Drury (18-3, 11-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will visit Illinois Springfield's Prairie Stars (8-13, 2-11) in a 5:30 p.m. tipoff Thursday at the TRAC in Springfield, Ill.
*RADIO/TV/INTERNET:Â The game will start on KBFL 1060 AM until joining JOCK 98.7 FM in a simulcast at 6 p.m. Both stations can be found on the internet at www.radiospringfield.com. A free live webcast can be viewed at www.uisprairiestars.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN).
*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS:Â Drury stayed red-hot, capping a four-game home stand with an 84-66 thrashing of No. 25 Bellarmine on Saturday at the O'Reilly Center that marked the eighth straight win for the Lady Panthers. it was also their 22nd consecutive home victory, tying a run by the 2003-05 Lady Panthers (at Weiser Gym) for the longest home winning streak in the program's history. DU's last six games have all been double-digit victories, by an average margin of 18.2 points. Annie Armstrong scored 19 points and Paige Wilson had 17 points off the bench - including 15 in a big first-half effort - to lead five DU players in double-figures as the Lady Panthers' tremendous balance of late continued. Armstrong averages 15.0 points and Alice Heinzler adds 12.3 points per game to pace the Lady Panthers, who receive a team-leading 6.5 rebounds from Hannah Dressler. DU's resurgence of late, in large part, has been due to the development of junior forward Briana Jones and freshman post Adrienne Horn as offensive threats. Jones has averaged 15.3 points and 5.7 rebounds over her last three games - including a career-high 21 points in a victory over Southern Indiana last Thursday - and Horn has come off the bench to score in double-figures in five straight games, averaging 12.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in that stretch. After going a combined 3-for-7 from 3-point range over her first 18 games this season, Jones is 9-for-16 on trey attempts over her last three.
*SCOUTING ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: First-year coach Mark Kost's Prairie Stars are coming off a split last weekend in St. Louis, where they defeated Maryville 59-57 on Thursday before falling 61-53 at UMSL on Saturday. Their 8-13 overall mark is highlighted by a 5-4 record at the TRAC. Shelbi Patterson, a 5-9 sophomore, leads a balanced UIS attack with her 10.0 points per game. Syerra Cunningham, a 6-1 junior, ranks third in the GLVC in rebounding with her 8.8 caroms per game.The Prairie Stars feature six players averaging between 7.4 and 10.0 points on a squad averaging 59.6 points per game while allowing 64.4. UIS leads the GLVC in 3-point FG percentage defense (.268), which will provide a nice challenge for a Drury team leading the nation in 3-point FG percentage (.421).*THE SERIES:Â Drury leads the all-time series with Illinois Springfield 8-0, including an 82-46 victory at The O' last season.
*MILLER TIME: The 18-3 start has pushed DU coach Molly Miller's record to 44-7 in two seasons - best after 51 games in the program's history - as the former Lady Panthers standout herself has made a smooth transition to the head coaching ranks. That includes a 23-1 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. Â
*ARMSTRONG CLIMBING CHARTS: Armstrong now has 1,004 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 13th place on the all-time scoring charts after she passed Caitlin Shouse (983 points from 2006-10) on the list last week, becoming the 13th player in the program's history to top the 1,000-point mark. Armstrong scored 241 points in her lone season at Eckerd, meaning she's scored 1,245 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 209 of 224 free-throw tries (93 percent) in her three seasons at DU, including a nation-best .956 last season (87 of 91) and 61 of 66 this season. For her college career combined, Armstrong is 243 of 263 at the stripe (92 percent).
*QUICK BITS:Â Armstrong ranks fourth nationally in FT percentage (70 of 76, .921) and Heinzler is sixth in 3-point FG percentage (55 of 116, .474). ... Armstrong leads the GLVC in FT percentage and ranks sixth in 3-point FG percentage (.451), while Heinzler is also second in the league in steals per game (2.38). ... Prior to their school record-tying current 22-game home winning streak at The O', the Lady Panthers had never won more than 10 consecutive home games (that coming at the end of the 2013-14 season and the opener in 2014-15). ... Drury's current eight-game overall win streak comes in a season in which the Lady Panthers opened the year with nine consecutive victories, streaks that sandwich a late-December to early-January stretch in which DU dropped three of four. ...Â
*ON DECK FOR THE LADY PANTHERS:Â Â Drury will stay in Illinois for a 1 p.m. Saturday GLVC matchup at McKendree (Lebanon, Ill.), before returning home to The O' for its final three games: February 18th vs. Maryville (Play 4Kay For Cancer Awareness), February 20 vs. UMSL (Homecoming) and February 25 vs. Missouri S&T (Senior Night).
