SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Davenport women's basketball team held their own on Tuesday night as they outscored No. 17 Drury in three of the four quarters. In the end it was one tough stretch in the third quarter when Drury outscored Davenport 26-8 which resulted in the 74-66 defeat.
Davenport (1-4) had their best free throw shooting game in years going 23-of-27 and that kept them close against the 4-0 Drury Panthers. It was the second meeting between the two teams and the first matchup in five years.
Davenport led for more time in the game (19:47) than Drury (17:10) and were ahead 22-19 after the first quarter and 38-32 at halftime. Davenport went 8-of-8 at the charity stripe in the first quarter and shot 50 percent overall from the floor in the second quarter.
Davenport was able to force 26 turnovers and scored 28 points off those miscues. They led by as many as eight points at the 2:01 mark of the second quarter. Davenport gave up the lead at the 6:32 mark of the third quarter and were stuck on 42 points for over six minutes in the third quarter. Drury used an 18-0 run over those six minutes to take their largest lead of 57-42 at the 1:12 mark of the third quarter.
The lead was cut down to 63-56 by Davenport with 5:34 remaining in the game. The Panthers battled even closer to just a five-point deficit at 66-61 with 2:21 left. They were also down five at 69-64 with 1:18 to play after a three-point play by freshman
Amyah Espanol. Espanol played in her first collegiate game after missing the first four games. She finished with nine points and four steals in 22 minutes.
Ellie Toney and
Lillee Gustafson each led the team with 10 points. Toney connected on 6-of-7 at the free throw stripe and also had a team-high seven rebounds.
Alexa Kolnitys added nine points and two steals in 21 minutes.
The Panthers are back on the court tomorrow against Truman State (2 PM ET). The Bulldogs (2-3) fell to Lincoln (Mo.) also on Tuesday by a score of 85-73 in the first game of the Drury Tournament.
