Championship Central |
Final Bracket
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – No. 1 seed and top-ranked Drury University captured the 2020 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Basketball Championship title on Sunday with a 77-55 victory over No. 3 seed Lewis University in First Community Arena at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
The Lady Panthers won their seventh overall crown and fourth consecutive, which sets a new league record. With the victory, Drury (32-0) earned the Conference's automatic qualifying bid into the NCAA Division II national tournament, as the 64-team field will be revealed later this evening at 10 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.
Drury senior forward, Hailey Diestelkamp, who was named to the All-Tournament Team and won her third-straight Most Outstanding Player honor, flirted with a triple-double and was eyeing a quadruple-double thanks to a game-high 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals, and six assists.
Drury sophomore guard Paige Robinson – who scored 22 and had a career-high nine boards in the win – joined Diestelkamp on the All-Tournament Team for her second-straight selection, while Lewis senior Rachel Hinders won her second All-Tournament honor with classmate Morgan Glatczk also voted to the team. Lindenwood senior Kallie Bildner rounded out the five-player squad.
Though she wasn’t voted to the All-Tournament team, it’s worth noting that senior guard Daejah Bernard collected three steals to become just the third player in program history to surpass 400 in her career.
Lewis shot better than Drury in all categories, going 23-of-55 (.418) from the field compared to 27-of-76 (.355); 6-of-14 (.429) from long range compared to 6-of-16 (.375); and 3-of-4 (.750) from the foul line compared to 17-of-24 (.708). The Panthers, however, scored 31 points off 34 Lewis turnovers, while both teams had 28 points in the paint.
Drury’s 32-straight wins set a program record in consecutive wins, and the team completed an undefeated Conference regular season while winning a postseason crown for the second year in a row.