Bolivar Mo. - The SBU Women's Basketball team resumed conference action Tuesday evening after a month of non-conference play. In their first contest of 2022, the Bearcats faced the Drury Panthers, who took over the #1 ranking in the nation earlier in the day. The Bearcats came up short against the Panthers by a score of 77-60. This makes the Bearcats record 7-5 (2-2 GLVC) for the season.

The Panthers came out hot and took a strong lead after the first quarter. However, the second quarter looked much different. Mary Rose Foster and Kyleigh Vaught sparked the team in the right direction. In the final two minutes before halftime, SBU made 3 three pointers, two from Emma Perry and one from Kyleigh Vaught to make the score 41-27. Early third quarter, Foster made a layup to make the game closer. Perry continued with her streak and made another three-pointer to cut the Drury lead to just 8. A few plays later, Pettus made a driving layup in the paint to make the score 51-43, but Drury pulled away late. Despite the strong second and third quarters, the Bearcats came up short against the Panthers with the final score 77-60.

Kyleigh Vaught was the leading scorer with 21 points with 4 rebounds. Emma Perry also had 16 points on 5 made three's with 5 rebounds. Mary Rose Foster had 8 points with 4 assists. As a team, Southwest Baptist had 33 rebounds and 15 assists, shooting 44% from the field.

The Bearcats will be on the road for their next game, taking on Quincy on January 6 at 5:30 PM.