#17 Drury 74, Davenport 66 (Nov. 21)
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.
Truman State 82, Davenport 74 (Nov. 22)
The Davenport women’s basketball team scored a season-high 74 points on Wednesday afternoon in the second game of the Drury Tournament against Truman State. However, the Bulldogs scored a season-high 82 points allowed by Davenport this season to send the team to their third straight defeat. The Panthers (1-5) had a great first quarter and led 24-15. The lead grew to as many as 12 points at the 5:57 mark of the second quarter (31-19) after a Mary Liedel jumper. The Bulldogs then would go on a run for the rest of the quarter to cut the deficit to 36-35 at halftime. It was the second straight game where the Panthers took a lead into the half.
Truman State scored their most points of the game in the third quarter (26) and held the Panthers to 17 points for a 61-53 lead with 10 minutes to go. Truman State shot 57.1 percent in the third quarter and were 7-of-7 from the foul line. Davenport shot 31.6 percent and were 3-of-3 at the charity stripe.
Truman State (3-3) led 77-65 with 1:54 to play, but the Panthers would score the next six points to make it 77-71 with 25 ticks left. The Bulldogs got a couple of free throws and would hold on for the eight-point win. Davenport hit a season-high 12 three’s in 34 attempts (35.3 percent). Makenna Bryant set her career high with 19 points going 7-of-14 from the floor including 4-of-7 behind the arc to set a new career high for three’s made. Jaci Walker recorded her first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 11 rebounds (five offensive). Lillee Gustafson and Mary Liedel led the team with 13 points. Gustafson also contributed five rebounds and two steals. Liedel made three triples and also had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. The biggest stat of the game was at the free throw line where TSU went 24-of-32 compared to 10-of-16 by the Panthers.
