SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Sophomore guard Annie Armstrong scored a career-high 22 points, including the driving bucket to send it to overtime, and top seed Drury escaped with a 74-68 victory against No. 8 seed Truman State in the extra period of the NCAA Division II MIdwest Regional on Friday night at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Amber Dvorak added 21 points and 12 rebounds as the Lady Panthers (25-3) advanced to Sunday's semifinal against the winner of Friday's late Northern Michigan vs. Quincy first-round game.
Armstrong hit 7 of 11 shots and all eight of her free-throw tries and Dvorak was both 7 of 10 from the field and the line as the Lady Panthers blew a double-digit lead, but held off the feisty Bulldogs (22-9) in the extra five minutes.
Drury led 35-30 at the half, and stretched that as high as 10 (47-37) with 15:02 to go on a Sanayika Shields layup. But Truman State answered with a 13-2 run in the next five minutes to take a 50-49 lead, and it was nip and tuck from there.
Amy Briggs put the Bulldogs up 65-53 with a 3-pointer with 1:15 to go, then it got wild, as both teams turned it over twice in the final minute before Armstrong's running jumper with 10 seconds left tied at 65, and Briggs missed a potential game winner before time expired.
The Lady Panthers never trailed in overtime. They led 70-68 after a free throw by Dvorak with 24 seconds to go, but Truman's Allie Norton missed an open look from 3-point range in the corner with 11 seconds left, Hannah Dressler snagged the rebound, and two clutch free throws from the freshman made it a four-point game (72-68) as Drury took it home from there, posting its 13th win in 14 games this season at The O before a crowd of 1,431.
