Saturday's matchup for the Drury Lady Panthers at McKendree in GLVC play, at a glance ...
*THE MATCHUP:Â Nationally 12th-ranked Drury (19-3, 12-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) will visit McKendree (11-13, 6-8) in a 1 p.m. tipoff at Harry M. Statham Sports Center in Lebanon, Ill.
*RADIO/TV/INTERNET:Â The game can be heard on JOCK 98.7 FM. A free live webcast can be viewed at www.mckbearcats.com/watch as part of the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN).
*ABOUT THE LADY PANTHERS:Â Drury pushed its winning streak to nine games with a 77-62 victory at Illinois Springfield on Thursday that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. The Lady Panthers, in maintaining a one-game lead over Truman State in the GLVC West (and now two over Quincy, which fell again Thursday), rolled to a 40-25 halftime advantage and led by as much as 27 points early in the second half before UIS cut into the deficit late. Senior guard Annie Armstrong got the Lady Panthers rolling early, hitting three of her six 3-pointers in the first quarter in staking DU to a 22-15 lead. Armstrong finished with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from long range, while Paige Wilson had 13 points off the bench and Alice Heinzler added 10. Hannah Dressler grabbed 10 boards and Heinzler had five assists as the Lady Panthers amassed a season-best 23 assists for the game. Armstrong averages 15.3 points and Heinzler adds 12.2 to lead the Lady Panthers, who will be shooting for the program's third straight 20-plus win season and its 13th in Lady Panther Basketball's 16-year history.
*SCOUTING McKENDREE: The Bearcats of first-year coach Kari Kerkhoff, a former SIU-Edwardsville assistant, are 11-13 overall, but are 6-4 at home, including Thursday's 60-42 victory over Missouri S&T. It's also where McKendree beat Wisconsin-Parkside 44-43 two weeks ago and lost to East power Lewis 51-46 after leading 39-38 entering the fourth quarter. As the scores indicate, McKendree will attempt to slow the pace and turn the game into a defensive struggle; the Bearcats are last in the GLVC in scoring offense at 56.4 per game, but second in the league in scoring defense behind only Truman State (54.6 ppg), allowing just 56.0 points per contest. McKendree, which has held eight opponents below 50 points this season, is allowing foes to shoot just .364 from the field, third best in the GLVC. Ellie Pusheck, a 6-0 junior, averages 8.8 points to lead a balanced Bearcats attack.*THE SERIES:Â Drury leads the all-time series with McKendree 3-0, including a 74-65 win at The O' last season.
*MILLER TIME: The 19-3 start has pushed DU coach Molly Miller's record to 45-7 in two seasons - best after 52 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. Drury will take a 22-game home court winning streak - tying a school record set by DU teams (at Weiser Gym) from 2003-05 - into next Thursday's matchup with Maryville at The O'.
*ARMSTRONG CLIMBING CHARTS: Armstrong now has 1,024 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 needs 33 points to pass Ja'Nell Jones (1,056 from 2007-11) for 12th place on the list. Armstrong scored 241 points in her lone season at Eckerd, meaning she's scored 1,265 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 211 of 226 free-throw tries (93 percent) in her three seasons at DU, including a nation-best .956 last season (87 of 91) and 63 of 68 this season. For her college career combined, Armstrong is 245 of 265 at the stripe (92 percent).
*ON DECK FOR THE LADY PANTHERS:Â Â Drury will return home to The O' for its final three games: February 18th vs. Maryville (Play 4Kay/Pink Zone For Cancer Awareness), February 20 vs. UMSL (Homecoming) and February 25 vs. Missouri S&T (Senior Night).
