Championship Central |
Tournament Bracket
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – No. 1 seed and third-ranked Drury University won the 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Basketball Championship title on Sunday with a 62-52 victory over No. 2 seed University of Southern Indiana at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois. This was the second consecutive title for Drury and its fifth league postseason crown, while the third in four years. The Panthers are the eighth team to win back-to-back titles but the first since Quincy did it in both 2004 and 2005.
Despite a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds from Southern Indiana’s Morgan Dahlstrom, it was Azia Lynch (13), Hailey Diestelkamp (12), and Heather Harman (9) who combined for 34 to lead the way for Drury.
With the victory, Drury 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.
The Screaming Eagles rallied from a 12-point first-quarter deficit to tie things up 31-31 at halftime and eventually took a 38-33 lead three minutes into the third period. But the eventual difference maker was a 15-2 run by the Panthers that spilt into the early stages of the fourth quarter, and USI was never able to recover.
Drury shot just 31 percent from the field but held USI to only 21 second-half points. Outside of the USI advantage in shooting percentage (47.6), Drury grabbed more rebounds (38-32), hit more threes (7-2), and had the edge in points in the paint (26-22), points off turnovers (22-21), and fast break points (4-0). The biggest difference, though, showed in second-chance points (16-6) and bench points (24-11).
Diestelkamp, who also notched nine rebounds, four assists and three steals, was named to the All-Tournament team with Most Outstanding Player distinction, while Harman joined her on the squad. Dahlstrom was also named to the five-member team, along with USI teammate Kaydie Grooms and University of Missouri-St. Louis’ Arielle Jackson.
To relive all seven women's tournament games that aired on the GLVC Sports Network, click the "On Demand" tab at
GLVCSN.com, on the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as all the OTT platforms via AppleTV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku TV.
For more information on the 2018 GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments, log on to
GLVCsports.com/2018hoops.