EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The No. 5 seed Lewis University women's basketball team fell to No. 2 seed Drury 76-47 Sunday (March 6) in the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship game at First Community Arena. The Flyers drop to 16-15 on the season, while Drury moves to 31-4.
 
The Flyers jumped out to an early lead as Lily Courier (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) and Kathryn Schmidt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central) jumpers gave the Flyers an early 4-0 advantage. A pair of Courier free throws put Lewis up 6-2 before six straight points from the Panthers gave them their first lead at 8-6.
 
A Schmidt three-pointer put the Flyers back ahead by a point, but a 9-1 run by Drury put them ahead by eight points before a Courier layup finished off the scoring for the quarter, making it 17-12 Drury after one.
 
Courier trimmed the deficit to three points with the opening basket of the second quarter, but nine straight points from the Panthers pushed the lead into double digits at 26-14 with 6:15 remaining in the half.
 
Grace Hilber (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) ended the run with a pair of baskets and Amelia Motz (Canton, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) scored five points down the stretch of the first half for the Flyers to get them back into single digits, but a Drury three-pointer put it ahead 35-23 at the half.
 
Drury jumped out with the first nine points of the third quarter to take a 44-23 lead before Courier's basket got the Flyers on the board in the second half. The Panthers though continued their run throughout the third quarter, outscoring Lewis 20-7 to take a 55-30 lead into the fourth. The Flyers came back to score 17 points in the fourth quarter, but Drury finished the quarter with 21 points.
 
The Flyers shot 32.7 percent (17-of-52) for the game from the floor and 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from three-point range, while Drury was 45.5 percent from the floor (30-for-66) and 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from beyond the arc. Lewis had the edge on the glass, 38-37, but committed 25 turnovers to 12 from Drury.
 
Courier scored 13 points to lead Lewis, while Motz had nine points and nine rebounds, Hilber tallied eight points and Schmidt brought down nine rebounds. Schmidt and Hilber were named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
The NCAA DII women's basketball championship selection show will be at 9 p.m. Sunday on NCAA.com, where the Flyers will see if they receive an at-large bid to next week's NCAA Midwest Regional.