SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Shut down offensively late in the first half after a quick start, and facing a seven-point deficit at the break as a result, Drury pulled together and defeated Wisconsin-Parkside in the second half for a 68-63 victory in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament championship game Sunday afternoon at the TRAC.
Drury moved to 26-6 on the season in capturing its second GLVC title in the last three seasons and making sure its fourth appearance in the league's championship game in five seasons as a GLVC member became a success.
Lindsay Ballweg, named the GLVC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player - and joined on the All-Tournament team by fellow senior Melanie Oliver - scored 19 points to lead four Lady Panthers in double-figures as Drury outscored the Rangers 42-30 in the second half to snag the victory.
Katie Pritchard added 15 points, Oliver had 13 points and eight rebounds - and moved within 10 rebounds of becoming DU's career leader - and Caitlin Shouse had 10 points and five rebounds for the Lady Panthers, who made 16 of 27 shots in the second (59 percent) to charge back.
Drury bolted out to a 17-10 lead in the game's first seven minutes, but then hit a lengthy dry spell - going the next 10 minutes and 14 seconds without a field goal. In that time, the Rangers (23-7) fashioned a 21-5 run that eventually produced a 33-26 halftime advantage. The Lady Panthers were outscored 18-8 in the paint and outrebounded 23-14 by Parkside in the first 20 minutes.
"At the half we focused on trying to get the kids to play within the framework of our offense," Drury coach Steve Harold said. "We told them 'trust your offense .. it's got you 80 points a game this year, so let's stop trying to make individual plays.' We were also down in rebounding, something we take a lot of pride in, and we challenged them to close the gap.
"Our seniors really rose up and took charge and we did a much better job of it all in the second half."
Drury answered the challenge by outscoring the Rangers 12-5 in the first five minutes of the second half, and finally caught Parkside when Ballweg hit a 3-pointer for a 45-all deadlock with 11:32 left. From there, the game would be tied three more times before the Lady Panthers began pulling away when Ballweg heated up.
Her 3-pointer with 4:01 left put the Lady Panthers up 60-51. The Rangers cut it back down to four with 1:32 to go on a trey by Jadee Rooney, but Pritchard - on a rare 1-for-7 effort from 3-point range by the nation's leading long-distance shooter - dropped in a huge one when her 3-pointer with 1:02 left pushed the lead back to seven (67-60), and DU took it home from there, grabbing a huge momentum boost as the Lady Panthers head into their eighth straight NCAA-II Tournament appearance in the coming week.
"You never want to move into regional play after a loss, because you've got spend the first couple of days after that trying to bring them back up," Harold said. "This makes it a whole lot easier, because you don't have to deal with the emotions."
Not that the composure of his team is a big concern for Harold, especially a group with the senior leadership of Ballweg, Oliver, Caitlin Shouse and Sarah Tipton.
"This team is full of character and full of chemistry," Harold said. "We lose a kid the caliber of Ja'Nell Jones, and we put somebody else in the lineup and they just do what they have to do. I think that shows the character of this basketball team."
Jones, the GLVC's assist leader (and No. 3 in the nation in that regard), dressed out, but missed her seventh consecutive game with a sprained foot. She's expected to be available for action when the NCAA-II regional begins on Friday.
Brittany Beyer had 21 points and Brittany Hogen added 20 points for GLVC North champion Parkside, which had defeated the Lady Panthers 72-71 in Kenosha, Wis., on January 14.
Drury finished the game shooting 47 percent (25 of 53) from the field to Parkside's 43 percent (27 of 62). The Rangers finished with a 36-32 edge on the boards, led by 10 rebounds from Amy Selk.
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