EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.— After Drury's eight-point win in the Great Lakes Valley Conference quarterfinals against McKendree on Friday, the Lady Panthers opened their next round of the tournament with renewed resolve in an 85-60 win over Truman State on Saturday in the semifinals at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
 
Drury, the top seed in the tournament and ranked number one nationally, raced to a 14-3 lead in the opening minutes and took a 25-10 advantage to the end of the first quarter.
 
"It's upset-city in March and yesterday was a good wake-up call," said Drury head coach Molly Miller. "This team was ready to go tonight. You could feel their energy from the get-go and when you couple that kind of energy with great defense – that's a lethal combination." 
 
The Lady Panthers led by double-digits throughout and forced 33 Truman State turnovers on their way to the 25-point win.
 
Hailey Diestelkamp registered her 12th double-double of the season as she scored 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and contributed six assists. The junior from Owensville also became Drury's all-time leading rebounder as she passed Melanie Oliver's career total of 812 and ended the game with 821 career boards.
 
"I didn't think Melanie's record would ever be broken," said Miller. "She was rebounding machine, but Hailey's a beast too, and it's incredible to see her get that record during her junior season."
 
Lauren Holmes scored a season-high 17 points hitting 5 of her 9 shots, and she went 3 for 5 from three-point range. Daejah Bernard added 11 points, eight assists, and seven steals while Paige Robinson chipped in 16 points.
 
MacKenzie Bray led the Bulldogs with 22 points.
 
Drury shot 52 percent from the field going 33 for 64 while Truman State shot 40 percent hitting 21 of their 53 tries and the Lady Panthers held the Bulldogs leading scorer, guard Sloane Totta, to four points - all of which came from the free throw line.
 
The win kept the Lady Panthers record perfect as they improved to 30-0 and their 30th consecutive win tied a program record as they matched the 30-game winning streak of Drury's national runner-up team in 2003-04. Truman State fell to 23-7 with the loss. 
 
Drury will play sixth-seeded Bellarmine, who knocked off number two seed Lewis 66-65 in the league's other semifinal, at 3:30 pm on Sunday in Edwardsville, Illinois for the GLVC championship.
 
#allweDUiswin