SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The second-ranked Drury Lady Panthers showed both the highs and lows of a quality team on Saturday night, as they overcame an early slow start against the Michigan Tech Huskies and stormed back to secure a 79-62 win at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
The Lady Panthers struggled through the opening period of play, managing to hit on only two of their first seventeen shots on the night and trailed the Huskies by ten points after the quarter and were down by seven at the half, 41-34.
But that’s when the ‘high’ kicked in.
Drury exploded out of the halftime locker room, turned up the defense and found their shooting touch, outscoring Michigan Tech 22-1 to open the third quarter, then finished with a 28-5 effort in the period and rolled to the win, improving to 12-1 overall for the season.
“What we weren’t doing was playing physical, and we weren’t talking about switches,” said Drury head coach Amy Eagan. “So I just told them we needed to pick it up defensively. Our offense didn’t come as easy tonight, but we can’t let our defense be affected by that.”
Senior All-American Paige Robinson showed the way for the Lady Panthers, as she poured in 19 first-half points, then added 17 after intermission, to finish with a season-high 36. She added eight rebounds and four steals to the effort before leaving the game late with an undisclosed injury with three minutes remaining.
“Our kids all knew this was a big game,” added Eagan. “I thought Paige put us on her back for sure, but so did Payton (Richards) as well. Her energy and her talk out there were great. And Alana (Findley) also gave us a lift with a really big second half.”
Junior Findley had 14 points, all in the second half, and shared rebounding honors with Robinson with eight. They were the only Drury players in double figures.
Ellie Mackay had 18 points to pace the Huskies, who dropped to 8-3 on the season.
The Lady Panthers are now idle through the holiday break and will be back in action on Jan. 2, when they return to Great Lakes Valley Conference play, hosting William Jewell in a 1:00 game at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
#allweDUiswin
