DU senior forward Amanda Newton

Allison Regier's 21 points leads four DU players in double-figures

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(Courtesy of Drury Sports Information Office ... Contact SID Scott Puryear at 417-873-4097 for more details)

January 19, 2006

Senior guard Allison Regier scored 21 points to lead four Drury Lady Panthers in double-figures as the nation's fifth-ranked basketball team posted a 79-59 victory over Southern Indiana in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Thursday night at Weiser Gym.

Senior All-America forward Amanda Newton and senior center Amy Belew added 12 points each and sophomore guard Becky Flippin came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-pointers and score 10 points for the Lady Panthers, who moved to 15-1 overall and 8-0 in the GLVC with the triumph.

"I thought defensively we really did some good things tonight," Drury coach Nyla Milleson said. "We worked very hard on our half-court defense, our rotation and stopping the dribble-drive, and I felt like we did a whole lot better than we did last week in Indiana. We need to shoot the ball better, but we did pretty good coming back home.

"It took us a while to get started, but once we did, I thought we did some very good things."

Senior point guard Kara Rutledge had only six points, but added six assists, five rebounds and five steals as the Lady Panthers forced 23 USI turnovers while committing just nine themselves. Rutledge, last week's GLVC Player of the Week honoree, had no turnovers in 32 minutes, pushing her totals to just two turnovers in her last 95 minutes of court time.

"She may not be scoring, but right now we don't really need her to," Milleson said. "For three and a half years she's given us steals, assists and turnover-free basketball, and that's Kara Rutledge."

The Lady Panthers built a 35-27 halftime lead, largely on 15 first-half points from Regier. But USI went on a 6-0 run to start the second half and close within two (35-33).

Drury then put together a 10-0 run, capped by Rutledge's 3-pointer, to assume a 45-33 advantage with 15:20 left and pushed the lead out further from there.

The Lady Panthers bounced back from a 12-for-33 shooting effort (36 percent) in the first half by hitting 17 of their 30 shots in the second half (57 percent).

Keisha Collins had 14 points and Sarah Buldtman had 10 for the Screaming Eagles, who fell to 11-9 and 3-6.

Drury returns to GLVC action on Saturday, playing host to Kentucky Wesleyan in a 2 p.m. contest at Weiser that will be televised locally by KY-3.

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