SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The 2018-19 edition of the Drury Lady Panthers started their year on a positive note with a 93-55 win over Missouri Valley in an exhibition game on Sunday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center in Springfield.
 
Drury was credited with 27 steals and forced 42 turnovers in the win. Hailey Diestelkamp had 16 points to lead all scorers and added eight rebounds as well as five steals. Daejah Bernard had 13 points and six steals while North Texas transfer Lauren Holmes added 13 points in her first game in a Lady Panther uniform.
 
Drury led 29-19 after the opening quarter, then blew the game open with a 21-5 second period that gave them a 50-24 advantage at halftime.
 
"I liked that we showed the potential to have any one of our players step up and contribute," said Drury head coach Molly Miller, who is in her fifth season leading the program. "It was nice to play against someone that was not ourselves and see how our chemistry, and some different combinations we'll try to use work themselves out."
 
Drury shot 41.7 percent from the field hitting 30 of 72 attempts while going 8 for 26 from three-point range. The Lady Panthers owned a 47-31 advantage on the boards and had 20 offensive rebounds.
 
Missouri Valley shot 40 percent hitting 18 out of 45 but went just 1 for 11 from three-point range. The Vikings did manage to get Drury to commit 27 turnovers in the game.
 
"We need to smooth the edges out on offense," said Miller. "We hang our hat in our transition game, and we didn't get as many transition buckets as I would have liked. We need to work on pushing the ball up the floor, and we had way too many turnovers today."
 
Hilma Mededovic led the Vikings with 15 points.
 
Sunday's contest was Drury's lone exhibition game on their schedule. They will start the regular season on Nov. 9 against Kentucky Wesleyan on the first day of the Pops Duncan Classic hosted by Trevecca Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
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