Drury's Lady Panthers made a school-record 15 3-pointers, including six from freshman Bethanie Funderburk, to run off to a 92-63 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory over Saint Joseph's Saturday afternoon at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
With Funderburk scoring 24 points and hitting 6 of 8 shots from behind the 3-point line individually, the Lady Panthers (4-4, 2-0 in the GLVC) made 15 of 24 shots from beyond the arc. The 15 treys broke the old mark of 14 set by the Lady Panthers twice in the 2009-10 season, at home vs. Missouri Western last November and at - ironically - Saint Joseph's a couple of weeks later.
Yes, it's the same DU squad that led the nation in 3-point FG percentage last year, but came into Saturday's game hitting 29 percent from behind the 3-point line.
"They shot it well ... it brought back memories of last year," Drury coach Steve Harold said. :"That's the confidence these kids need. We tell our kids all the time that if you're confident, your performance will show it. We feel like if they're going to be confident, they're going to perform well.
"I thought our kids really today rose to the challenge and played outstanding."
The Lady Panthers came out on fire from the start, hitting 7 of their first 9 trey tries on their way to a 43-27 halftime advantage, shaking a string of first-half doldrums at home in the process as well. Drury had scored 16, 35 and 20 points in their previous first halves at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
The Lady Panthers made 10 of 13 treys in the first half alone (77 percent) on the way to hitting 15 of 26 shots overall (58 percent). Drury finished at 58 percent for the game as well (32 of 55). In contrast, Saint Joseph's hit 24 of 60 shots for the game (40 percent), including just 5 of 20 from 3-point range (25 percent).
Funderburk's six 3-pointers fell just one short of the school-record seven treys in a game held by Lindsay Ballweg (twice) and Katie Pritchard. Her 24 points led four Lady Panthers in double-figures, as Ja'Nell Jones added 15 points and Kassie Walker and Sara Jane Plemmons added 14 points each.
Walker hit four of her five 3-point tries and Plemmons was perfect in both of her attempts.
Erica Groose pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds to pace Drury to a 42-27 advantage on the boards, and Jones had a season-high eight assists as Drury had a season-best 21 assists as a team.
"It came easier today because we did a better job of passing the basketball," Harold said. 'We'd not had 21 assists in a game all year, and that's more than we're accustomed to ... we cut hard and delivered the scoring passes.
"I also think our success was predicated by our defense ... at one point, (St. Joseph's) went eight straight possessions without scoring (in the second half), and that allowed us to separate."
All told, it was the best game of the year from a Lady Panthers' squad still learning its roles on the fly after the loss of their top returning scorer and the nation's leading 3-point shooter last season, junior guard Katie Pritchard, to a knee injury in the team's only exhibition game just days before the start of the season.
"This team is getting better each and every day, as we've seen the last four or five games," Harold said.
"I thought our kids really today rose to the challenge and played outstanding."
Brittney Cruse had 20 points to lead Saint Joseph's.
The Lady Panthers are back home on Monday night, playing host to Newman University in a non-conference game with a 6 p.m. start at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
No comments:
Post a Comment