SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Lady Panthers rebounded from their Thursday loss with an 86-49 win over Lincoln on Saturday afternoon in The O'Reilly Family Event Center as two former Lady Panthers were inducted into the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Lincoln raced out to an early 5-2 lead after a three-pointer and a driving layup back-to-back. Punches were then traded for the remainder of the first quarter, with the Lady Panthers taking the lead at 12-10 with 1:31 left in the first quarter, and did not look back from there.
 
The first quarter ended with Drury having a 14-10 advantage.
 
In the first three minutes of the second quarter, Drury pulled away from the Blue Tigers with a 14-2 run led by four points from Sara Mendel and three from Audra Pasakarnis and Raegan Halliday.
 
Lincoln responded, in the final five and a half minutes, with a glimmer of life. The Blue Tigers scored nine points, four from Isis Sanders. The problem for Lincoln was that they allowed Drury to score ten more points entering the break.
 
Drury took a 38-21 lead into the halftime break.
 
A 10-0 run in the middle of the third quarter extended the Lady Panthers' lead to as much as 33 points. Sara Mendel paced Drury in the third with 11 points and five rebounds.
 
Drury outscored Lincoln in the quarter 30-14.
 
With a 68-35 lead, the Lady Panthers kept their foot on the gas in the final quarter, adding 18 in the final to Lincoln's 14. In the final quarter, the Lady Panthers scored 10 of their 14 points in the paint, leading to the 86-49 win.
 
GAME NOTES

• The win improves Drury to 15-0 all-time against Lincoln and 9-0 in Springfield.
• The Lady Panthers are now 6-1 in the GLVC, trailing only UMSL (8-0).
• Drury shot a season high 53.2% on 33-62 shooting. The 33 makes ties the most for Drury in a game this season with the home opener against Texas A&M International.
• The Lady Panthers held Lincoln to 27.8% shooting on 54 attempts.
• The Blue Tigers only added four makes from beyond the three-point line.
• Drury was 6-15 from deep.
• Drury outrebounded Lincoln 43 to 32.
• After struggling against Missouri S&T in the paint on Thursday, Drury answered with 44 points inside and held Lincoln to 20. 12 of Lincoln's 20 points in the paint came in the first half.
• Drury's bench added 31 points to the win, led by 10 from Audra Paskarnis, six from Talia Norman, Josie Storey, and Ellie Wells.
• Freshman Sage Stratton started her first career game in the win.
• Sara Mendel recorded her sixth straight double-double and eighth in the last nine games. Mendel posted a 20-point and 10-rebound performance. It was Mendel's third 20-point double-double of the season.
• With Mendel's sixth point, she reached her 600th career point.
• Kaylee King tied her season high in points with 14, half of which came in the fourth quarter. She eclipsed the 300 career points mark.
• Rhi Gibbons added 11 points and eight rebounds to the win.
• Ellie Wells scored a career-high six points on 3-3 shooting.
• Josie Storey passed her 600th career point.
• Isis Sanders led Lincoln with 17 points.
• Taelyn Smith pulled in 12 rebounds for the Blue Tigers.
• Drury kept their fourth team under 50 points in the last five games.
• The win was Drury's 197th win in The O'Reilly Family Event Center.
• There were two Lady Panther legends inducted into the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame postgame: Deajah Bernard and Hailey Diestelkamp.

 
QUOTABLE
"I think we responded well from Thursday and did a great job communicating today," said Kaci Bailey postgame, "We caused chaos for Lincoln and knocked down shots once we settled down."
 
UP NEXT
The Lady Panthers return to the road on Thursday with a meeting with Maryville in St. Louis.
 
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