SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Davenport women's basketball team knew it was going to be a great measuring stick early this season as they played game one of the Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Friday. The Panthers (2-3) battled Truman State (6-0) in an 81-66 loss and will play No. 9 Drury tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. eastern time. The Bulldogs stayed unbeaten by getting the ball inside and shooting with great accuracy. Truman State scored 34 points in the paint and shot 52.7 percent overall.

Truman led 21-16 after one quarter as Davenport shot 6-of-11 from the floor. The Bulldogs led 12-5 midway through the quarter as the Panthers did not have a lead in this contest. Martyna Pioro connected on a shot with 37 seconds left in the quarter to make it 19-16, but Katey Klucking made a pair of free throws to end the quarter for Truman.

Brooke Bailey nailed a three-pointer to start the second quarter for Truman to build an eight-point lead. DU cut the lead to 24-20 on a layup by Kenzie Wilkinson, but the Bulldogs increased their lead to 34-23 at the 3:06 mark. Truman led 38-28 at halftime and shot 7-of-14 in the quarter compared to 3-of-11 for the Panthers.

TSU increased their lead to 50-36 at the 4:33 mark of the third quarter on a Rachel Steinhoff triple. Davenport could not get the lead under double figures and saw themselves with an uphill battle down 59-42 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Panthers did have their best shooting quarter going 9-of-16 including 6-of-8 behind the arc. Truman however went 7-of-12 from the floor and 7-of-7 at the free throw line. DU cut the lead to 61-53 on an 11-0 run in three minutes capped off by a Haley Gibbons three-pointer. Mackenzie Bray converted a three-point play to get the lead back to double figures at 64-53 with 6:54 remaining.

Amanda Merz made a triple on the next possession for the Panthers but that would be the closest it would get at 64-56. Allison Thomas scored the next four points for Truman and they kept the comforable lead until the final buzzer. Pioro set a career-high with 17 points and made 6-of-8 from the floor including 4-of-5 behind the arc. Toni Grace scored 12 points going 9-of-10 at the foul line. Wilkinson scored all eight points in the first half and grabbed four rebounds in 21 minutes. Merz dished out six assists to lead the team and also had seven points and five rebounds.