SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The top-seeded Drury Lady Panthers opened the Great Lakes Valley Conference post-season tournament with a hard-fought quarterfinal win over the eighth-seeded University of Indianapolis Greyhounds at the O'Reilly Family Event Center on Thursday night.
It was anything but a one vs. eight tournament match-up, however, as the Greyhounds proved to be Drury's most challenging opponent of the season, refusing to let the nationally ranked Lady Panthers off easy.
After it appeared Drury might be able to pull away from the visitors in the fourth quarter, grabbing an eleven-point lead with eight minutes to play, Indianapolis battled back and pulled within three points with seventeen seconds remaining. But clutch free-throw shooting provided the Lady Panthers with the needed margin.
Senior
Emily Parker hit three from the line, and newly crowned GLVC Player-of-the-Year
Paige Robinson made a pair from the stripe to preserve the win, moving Drury to 18-1 overall and into the next round of the tournament.
"Indy is a really good team from top to bottom," said Drury head coach
Amy Eagan. "When you're in a win or go home for the season situation, you know you're going to get everyone's best effort, and they played us that way tonight."
The Lady Panthers trailed 18-16 after the opening period of play but then held the Greyhounds to just 7 points in the second quarter to take a 34-25 lead at intermission. Eleven points off-the-bench from freshman
Allie Clevenger proved to be key in their second-quarter surge.
"Every night this year, someone has come in to give us a lift, and tonight Allie came in and hit some big three's, and that really was big for us," added Eagan.
Senior
Azia Lynch paced the Drury effort, posting a double-double effort with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Robinson finished with 15 points, while Parker matched Clevenger with 11 points of her own.
Mickey Sasson, paced the Greyhound scoring, finishing with 21 as Indianapolis closed their season at 11-11.
Indianapolis won a close rebounding battle 37-36 over the Lady Panthers. However, Drury forced the Greyhounds into 15 turnovers for the contest while committing just seven.
With the victory, the Lady Panthers will host the semifinal and championship rounds of the GLVC tourney this weekend at the O'Reilly Family Event Center and will face off against Missouri-St. Louis at noon on Saturday after the Tritons defeated Lewis in their quarterfinal meeting on Wednesday night.
#allweDUiswin
