SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Drury Lady Panthers held off an Illinois Springfield charge in the fourth quarter and avenged a loss to the Prairie Stars earlier this season with an 80-68 victory on Saturday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Drury won their seventh straight game and improved to 15-4 and 10-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while Illinois Springfield dropped to 10-9 and 8-5 in the league.
The Lady Panthers owned a 28-16 after one quarter but were held to nine points in the second period and had their lead chopped to four, 37-33. The Prairie Stars took the lead in the early moments of the third quarter, and the contest went to the fourth period tied at 53-53.
Drury outscored Illinois Springfield 21-15 in the final 10 minutes and fought off the Prairie Stars down the stretch to win by 12.
"I thought we did a good job of controlling the rebounds," said Drury head coach
Kaci Bailey, whose team owned a 44-29 advantage on the glass. "Illinois Springfield had 24 offensive rebounds against Southwest Baptist on Thursday, and they had 17 on us in the first go-around. So to hold them to 12 was the name of the game, and we were able to control the possessions."
Two Drury players were in double-figures in rebounding as a pair of Lady Panthers had double-doubles.
Reese Schaaf collected her ninth double-double of the year with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while
Caitlynn Daniels added 17 points with 10 boards for her second double-double of the year.
Lady Panthers guard
Beth Matas Martin had a game-high 25 points and went 5 for 8 from three-point range and helped put the game away, hitting 6 of 7 free throws.
Liz Uhl led Illinois Springfield with 21 points and Jessenia Lawson had 19 points and 9 rebounds.
Drury, who lost to Illinois Springfield on the road, 88-79 on Jan. 3, shot 51 percent in the game, going 26 for 51 from the field and 8 for 17 from three-point range. The Prairie Stars hit just 33 percent of their shots, finishing 22 for 66 and 9 for 27 from behind the arc.
The Lady Panthers are idle until next Saturday, when they travel to Southwest Baptist for a 1 pm game in Bolivar.
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