SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— After giving up 30 points to the Drury Lady Panthers in the third quarter, Illinois Springfield put together a furious fourth-quarter rally to defeat Drury 88-79 on Wednesday in Springfield, Illinois.
 
The Lady Panthers trailed 39-35 at the intermission after a back-and-forth first half. Drury outscored the Prairie Stars 30-15 in the third period to lead by 11, 65-54, only to have Illinois Springfield put in seven unanswered points in 51 seconds to start the fourth.
 
The game stayed tight the rest of the way and the Prairie Stars drew even at 77-77 with 3:34 remaining on back-to-back three-pointers by Kayla Rice, her only two made shots in the game. Jessenia Lawson got a steal and lay-up moments later that put Illinois Springfield ahead for good.
 
"We started off that fourth quarter not making good decisions, made some careless turnovers and we got away from what got us where we were," said Drury head coach Kaci Bailey. "We didn't get Reese (Schaaf) enough touches and we just missed some defensive assignments. They were the better team in closing the game out."
 
Lawson finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds for the Prairie Stars while Liz Uhl added 26 points.
 
Beth Matas Martin, Caitlynn Daniels, and Reese Schaaf all had 16 points for Drury, while Anna Hitt contributed 14 points and 8 rebounds.
 
The Lady Panthers shot 46 percent from the field, hitting 30 of 66 shots and the Prairie Stars went 43 percent from the floor going 29 for 68. Illinois Springfield, though, was 25 for 27 at the foul line while Drury made 14 of their 19 free throws.
 
Drury fell to 8-4 and 3-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while Illinois Springfield went to 6-7 and 4-3 in the league.
 
The Lady Panthers are back at home on Saturday when they host Rockhurst for a 1 pm game in the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
 
 
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