SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Missouri S&T will travel to Springfield on Thursday evening for a meeting with the Lady Panthers in The O'Reilly Family Event Center at 5:45 pm.
Drury is entering play, coming off their strongest weekend of the season, where they picked up two wins by 34+ points against Rockhurst and William Jewell. Missouri S&T fell to Truman State on Sunday, dropping its GLVC record to 2-3.
Fans may follow the action through the GLVC Sports Network (subscription required), where games will be streamed live throughout the regular season. New for the 2025-26 academic year, viewing access to GLVC regular season and postseason broadcasts will be available via monthly subscription ($30) or annual subscription ($140). Single-event access can also be purchased for $15. All Drury Lady Panthers games will also have free live audio coverage on DU All-Access.
SERIES HISTORY
- Drury leads the all-time series 38-4.
- The Lady Panthers have won the most recent meeting and 24 of the last 25 meetings.
- Kaci Bailey is 3-1 as the Lady Panthers head coach against Missouri S&T.
- While playing in Springfield, Drury is 19-2 against the Miners, with the most recent loss coming in the 2012-13 season.
- Drury has four triple-doubles in program history, two of them have come against Missouri S&T, with the most recent one coming in the 2025 loss in Rolla from Caitlynn Daniels.
STORYLINES
- The Lady Panthers are one of two GLVC teams still undefeated, with UMSL (6-0) the other team.
- Drury is riding a three-game winning streak for the second time this season, entering Thursday. The Lady Panthers have won six of their last seven games.
- The Lady Panthers are the only GLVC team to win at least two games against league opponents by 34+ points this season.
- Since Kaci Bailey has taken the reins of the Lady Panthers, Drury is 17-2 in January and 10-0 while playing in The O'Reilly Family Event Center.
- Under Bailey, Drury is outscoring opponents 78 to 62 in games played in January in her first three seasons.
- Sara Mendel leads the GLVC and is fourth in the nation in double-doubles. The junior has eight this season and has rattled off four straight and six in the last seven games.
- Mendel is tied for ninth all-time in single-season Drury double-doubles with Lady Panther great, Hailey Diestelkamp's 2016-17 season. Mendel is one double-double away from tying Jill Curry with 15 career double-doubles.
- Mendel is third in the nation in field goal percentage with a 66.7%, less than a full percentage point behind Georgia Southwestern's Kassidy Neal, who has a 67.6% on 37 fewer total attempts.
- Mendel is 21 points away from 600 career points.
- Rhi Gibbons has scored double digits in 16 straight games, dating back to last season. She is the first Lady Panther to score double figures in the first 12 games of a season since Paige Robinson in the 2020-21 season, when Robinson did so in all 26 games the team played that season.
- Kaylee King has turned her season around after a slow start. King scored just 15 points in the first four games of the season. She has averaged 11 points over the last eight games, with seven games being 10+ points and reaching double digits in the last six games.
- King is 14 points away from 300 career.
- Josie Storey is seven points away from 600 career between her time at UT-Martin and Drury.
- Drury has allowed under 50 points in three straight games, which is the sixth time in program history that such a streak has occurred. This includes two instances in the 2003-04 season, spanning seven games.
- No Lady Panther team has ever kept teams under 50 in four straight games.
- Against William Jewell, Drury held the Cardinals to 34 points, the lowest any Drury opponent has scored in program history, breaking a 21-year record held by Central Methodist, which scored 35 in November 2004.
- This season, opponents are shooting 25.4% from three against the Lady Panthers, which would be a single-season low for opponents, surpassing last year's mark of 26.8%.
- Missouri S&T is led by Norah Gum. Gum played for Kaci Bailey and Destiny Smith this summer as part of the D2 All-Stars Team USA that traveled to Brazil in July.
- Gum is scoring 13.8 points a game against NCAA Division II competition.
- The Miners are 6-5 this season, but three of the wins have come against non-division two competition. Against division two teams, S&T is 3-5.
- Drury has 196 wins in The O'Reilly Family Event Center in the venue's first 16 seasons. If the Lady Panthers were to win their next four home games, they would reach 200 wins in just 222 games. If that were to happen, it would happen on January 24 against Indianapolis.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Lady Panthers are back in The O' on Saturday against Lincoln for Hall of Fame Day with a tip-off at 1 pm.
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