Lady Panthers Win At Quincy
QUINCY, Ill. - The Drury Lady Panthers locked down a late lead this time, using a 14-0 run to finish the game and down Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division leader Quincy 53-39 Thursday night at the Pepsi Arena.
Drury improved to 11-11 overall and 5-9 in the GLVC, while Quincy fell to 13-9 and 11-3 and had a four-game winning streak snapped. The Lady Panthers also avenged a 68-62 loss to the Lady Hawks at the O'Reilly Center on January 19.
The Lady Hawks failed to score in the final 7 minutes, 13 seconds as a Drury team that's seen several leads squandered in the closing minutes left nothing to chance in picking up their first win in Quincy in their last five trips.
Kylie Williamson scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds - matching a career high - while playing all 40 minutes to lead the Lady Panthers, who got 14 points fromKatie Pritchard and 11 points from Kalea Parks.
Williamson, who had 12 points in the first half in helping DU to a 22-18 lead at the break, also defensively held one of Quincy's top offensive threats, Kelly Buresh, scoreless for the game.
"It's a much-needed win," Drury coach Steve Harold said. "We talked about it during shootaround and pre-game today that getting a win today could really be a jump-start to a big finish for us. I was proud of the way we played down the stretch ... and I can't say enough about the efforts of Kylie Williamson and the way she played today. I thought Katie Pritchardmade some big plays late, and I thought Lauren McCurry really came in and gave us a boost."
It was Drury's first victory in Quincy since January of 2007, a place where they lost 96-60 last season, 91-68 in 2011 and 87-72 in 2009.
"We'd never won here since I'd been at Drury, and we had some pretty dad-gum good teams come in here and get beat," Harold said. " To struggle the way we had this year and come up here and get a win with this team ... I'm awfully proud of those girls."
The Lady Panthers opened up a 30-22 lead early in the second half, but then went into an offensive drought over the next few minutes against a Quincy zone defense. Drury inserted McCurry into the lineup, who hit a big jumper and sparked what would later become a 10-0 Lady Panthers run to open up a 49-39 advantage with four minutes left.
Pritchard's 18-footer with left gave Drury a 51-39 lead to thwart any final thoughts of a Quincy run as the Lady Hawks didn't score in the final 7-plus minutes.
The Lady Hawks made just 15 of 45 shots (33 percent). And perhaps most impressively, the same DU squad that was outrebounded by Quincy 37-21 in Springfield less than a month ago won the boards this time by a 36-28 count. Parks and Abby Bracker supported Williamson's 11 boards with five rebounds each.
Hannah Weedman and Carly Beebe had 11 points each to lead the Lady Hawks.
Drury continues its weekend GLVC road trip at Illinois-Springfield on Saturday in a 1 p.m. tipoff.
This site uses Facebook comments to make it easier for you to contribute. If you see a comment you would like to flag for spam or abuse, click the "x" in the upper right of it. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use.