Lincoln leads Drury girls to third win this week
NORTHFIELD -- The Drury girls' basketball team capped off an amazing week on Thursday night, picking up its third win in three days with a 39-27 win at Pioneer. Fresh off a championship run at their own Gene Wein Holiday Tournament, the Blue Devils led by three points after three quarters before a 12-3 run in the fourth frame put the game away for good.
Senior point guard Cassie Lincoln led the way for Drury (6-1), scoring a game-high 12 points to go along with four rebounds and a team-high seven steals.
"Cassie played a tremendous game on both offense and defense," Blue Devils head coach John Franzoni said. "She hit big shots for us in the second half and her pressure on the ball keyed our full-court pressure."
Playing its third game in three nights, Drury didn't have the same offensive punch it did two nights ago when it poured in 61 points against Wahconah, but the Blue Devils' defense was stifling once again. In the last five games, which all resulted in victories, Franzoni's squad has held their opponents to a mere 27 points per game.
"It was a great effort by our team to earn three victories in three consecutive nights," Franzoni said. "We struggled at times offensively tonight, but give credit to Pioneer for playing very aggressively on the defensive end of the court. Our defense has been tremendous, and that has been the key factor in our five-game winning streak. If you can hold teams to less than 30 points then you are going to win a lot of basketball games. Once again, our bench gave us a big lift tonight with good efforts from Ali Tatro, Lyndsey DeGrenier, Mariah Ferrara, Olivia Koperek and Kendra Hinkell."
Both DeGrenier and Tatro chipped in with seven points off the bench, while sophomore guard Danielle Racette finished with four points, a team-high six assists and four rebounds. Leah Gexler led the Panthers with 10 points in a losing effort, while Arianna Harrison was close behind with nine points.
Drury gets a much needed week off now before resuming play with a home game against Monument Mountain on Friday, January 7.