SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Knowing their only home loss of last season came at the hands of Rockhurst, the Drury Lady Panthers used that as motivation in turning back the visiting Hawks 73-44 on Saturday afternoon at the O'Reilly Family Event Center, moving them 10-1 on the season and 2-0 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
An impressive eight and half minutes of outstanding play during the first half triggered the Lady Panthers to the win.
After the teams battled to a 13-all tie during the opening ten minutes of play, the Lady Panthers dominated the second quarter, pressing the Hawks into numerous turnovers and outscoring the visitors 22-3 in the quarter, including the final eighteen points of the period in route to a 35-16 halftime advantage.
"Sometimes we get it into our heads that offense is the flow," said Drury head coach
Amy Eagan. "But we need to make defense the flow, and I thought we made that transition really well in the second quarter today."
Rockhurst was able to briefly trim the margin to 13 points after intermission, but Drury once again turned up the pressure, forcing the Hawks into a total of 31 turnovers for the contest, and cruised home with the decision, improving their overall series record versus the Hawks to 40-2
Senior all-American
Paige Robinson paced the Lady Panthers in scoring with 19 points, including a perfect ten of ten from the free-throw line.
Graduate student
Terrion Moore added 15 points, and her early game presence was critical in the second-quarter explosion.
"We're just a different team when Terrion's not on the floor because she's such a lockdown defender," added Eagan. "But we've challenged her to be a little bit more offensively minded for us, and I think she's getting a little more into that."
Rockhurst (3-2, 1-1) was paced in scoring by Molly Hummel, who finished with 10 points.
The Lady Panthers return to the O'Reilly Family Event Center on Thursday, Dec. 9th, when they will host Harris-Stowe in an 11 am contest for Hiland Dairy Kids Day.
#allweDUiswin
