KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Drury Lady Panthers won their second straight game with a 67-63 win at Truman State on Thursday evening behind Jazz Gray's career day.
 
Two three-pointers to start the game raced Truman State out to an early lead. The Lady Panthers responded with a Kaylee King three-pointer and a Rhi Gibbons layup.
 
Drury and Truman kept trading blows in the first quarter, but the Lady Panthers came out of the quarter with a 16-14 lead after a Jazz Gray bucket at the buzzer. Gray scored eight of the Lady Panthers' 16 points in the quarter.
 
The Lady Panthers had another slow start to the second quarter, with the Bulldogs taking a five-point lead, their largest of the game. Jazz Gray stopped the Truman run to kick-start an 8-0 Drury run, the longest run of the evening for the Lady Panthers.
 
Drury entered the intermission up 33-30.
 
Despite the early-season struggles in the third quarter, Drury took control of the first ten minutes out of halftime behind Josie Storey's seven points and Kaylee King's five points. The Lady Panthers grew their lead to as much as ten points before the end of the quarter, 55-45.
 
The fourth quarter started with a Sara Mendel put back layup to extend Drury's lead to 12 points, their largest of the night.
 
Truman responded with a 12-3 run, led by Emajin McCallop with eight points during the stretch, to cut the Lady Panthers' lead to 60-57.
 
After back-to-back makes were traded, Josie Storey drew a charge with 31 seconds left in the game to swing the momentum back to the Lady Panthers. Following the charge, Drury knocked down five of six free throws to close the game and secure the 67-63 win.
 
GAME NOTES

• The win improves the Lady Panthers to 4-3 and 2-0 in Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) play.
• It is the first time this season that Drury is over .500.
• The Lady Panthers outshot the Bulldogs 42.9% to 37.9%.
• Drury was also 42.9% from beyond the arc. It is the Lady Panthers' second straight game shooting over 40% from three.
• Drury was 13-18 from the charity stripe against Truman.
• The Lady Panthers outscored the Bulldogs in the paint (34 to 26), fast breaks (10 to 6), and tied Truman on bench points with 26 apiece.
• Truman State outrebounded Drury, 39 to 35.
• Jazz Gray led all Lady Panthers in scoring with 15 points, a career high. She did so on 7-13 shooting from the field. Gray also pulled in 7 rebounds, another career high.
• Kaylee King added 12 points to the win.
• Sara Mendel recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds, her fourth double-double of the season and 10th of her career. Mendel did so in a season low of 26 minutes played.
• Rhi Gibbons scored her 10th point in the closing seconds of the game. She assisted with five made baskets.
• Gibbons and Mendel have now both scored in double figures in the first seven games of the season, a program record for a duo.
• Emajin McCallop led all scorers with 17 points for Truman State.
• Mallory Ott (12) and Katelyn Odem (10) each added double-digit performances.
• The Lady Panthers won their first third quarter of the season, 22-15.
• The game was the Lady Panthers' seventh of eight games in a 21-day span and second of five straight road games in December.
• Drury improves their all-time record against Truman State to 24-1 and 9-1 while playing at Pershing Arena.
• The Lady Panthers have now won six straight against the Bulldogs.
• Kaci Bailey is now 5-5 all-time against Truman, 5-0 while at Drury.

 
QUOTABLE
"Jazz came up big for us today," coach Kaci Bailey commented postgame, "Any win in this league is tough, let alone a road win. I am proud of how our team competed."
 
UP NEXT
The Lady Panthers finish their weekend road trip at Quincy on Saturday for a 1 pm tip at Pepsi Arena.
 
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