SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— 48 hours after watching their 42-game winning streak come to an end, the Drury Lady Panthers appeared to be headed easily back into the win column Thursday night, but it wound up being anything but easy.
The Lady Panthers managed to hold off the Lindenwood Lions 80-72 in a highly competitive contest at the O'Reilly Family Event Center and improved to 11-1 on the season as well as in Great Lakes Valley Conference action.
The game was back-and-forth in the closing moments, and Lindenwood held a 70-69 lead with just over four minutes remaining when Drury junior
Paige Robinson took control. First dropping a three-point shot from the top of the key, then scoring once from the free-throw line, followed by a turn-around jumper in the lane with 40 seconds to play, helping the Lady Panthers pull away and secure the much-needed win.
"That's Paige, she's a big-time player, and she really dug down and made some big plays for us when we really needed it," said
Amy Eagan, Drury head coach.
The Lady Panthers used a 9-0 run to close the opening quarter that extended into a 23-4 blitz that moved them to an 18-point lead in the second period. The Lions, however, countered with a 15-2 run in the period to narrow the lead and trailed 42-35 at halftime.
Lindenwood would forge a tie at 46-all just three minutes into the second half of play; then the teams would trade the lead eight more times before the final buzzer.
"You always wonder when you go through a streak where you win, win, win, just how they'll handle the loss and how you bounce back from that can define who you are as a program," added Eagan.
Lindenwood won the battle of the boards, outrebounding Drury 34-21, but the Lady Panthers forced the Lions into 23 turnovers and committed just eight themselves in the see-saw contest.
"We did a really did a great job of taking care of the ball tonight and at the same time forced them into 23 turnovers, and for us, that's a stat that's really, really important," said Eagan.
Robinson finished with 22 points to pace four Drury players in double-figures. Senior
Azia Lynch finished with 16, while senior
Emily Parker and freshman
Allie Clevenger added 10 points each.
The Lions (7-5, 7-5 GLVC) were led by 25 points from Ellen McCorkle. Devin Fuhring and Julia Ruzevich added 18 each in the losing effort.
The Lady Panthers are now 6-0 overall in their brief series against the Lions.
Drury is idle until Feb. 11th, when they resume GLVC action on the road at McKendree University in a 5:30 contest with the host Bearcats.
#allweDUiswin
