SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-It's safe to assume the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Cougars are thoroughly sick of Drury's Carter sisters.

A year after her younger sister, Hannah, beat the Cougars on the same floor with a last-second 3-pointer, Molly Carter went one better - completing a four-point play with two seconds left to lift the No. 8 Drury Panthers to a 69-68 victory over SIUE in a Great Lakes Valley Conference thriller Saturday, January 12.

Down 68-65 and having to call two timeouts in their final possession to bail out of trouble, Drury got the ball in Molly Carter's hands on the right wing. She shook her defender briefly with a step to clear some space, then swished a 3-pointer while being fouled by SIUE's Laura Witherspoon to send Weiser into a frenzy.

Carter then cooly stepped to the line to make the free throw for a 69-68 advantage, and the Cougars failed to get a shot off in the final two seconds in falling to 10-3 overall and 3-2 in the GLVC.

The Panthers improved to 12-2 overall and 4-2 in the GLVC while improving to 6-0 in the all-time series with the Cougars, who will head to the NCAA Division I level next season. Three of the past four meetings have come down to the final shot.

"That's probably the wildest finish I've ever been involved with ... how many times do you win on a four-point play?" asked Drury coach Steve Harold. "I told the girls in the locker room afterward that I was proud of them because they didn't panic. And Molly tells me all the time, 'I'm not going to let this team lose,' so we put it in her hands ... and she did it.

"I tell you what ... that's a big, big free throw with a lot of pressure she hit after the shot."

Molly Carter finished with 20 points (on 8-of-12 shooting) to lead Drury, which held a 34-33 advantage at the break. Sophomore Sara Bos added 14 points, sophomore Melanie Oliver added 12 points and six rebounds and Hannah Carter led the defensive effort with seven steals, adding six points and four assists in matching her sister's 38 minutes of work.

Drury led 61-52 with 7:43 remaining before the Cougars charged back, finally catching the Panthers and taking a 66-65 lead  with 34 seconds left  on a pair of free throws by senior guard Whitney Sykes. After a Panther turnover, the Cougars made it 68-65 with 22 seconds to go when Witherspoon made a pair of free throws.

Then came Molly Carter's heroics, a shot she most definitely will never forget.

"Right there at the end, I saw it in her eyes ... 'I want the basketball,' " Harold said. "We just put in her hands, win or lose, and she certainly delivered.

"I really felt like our crowd might have been the difference in those final few minutes," Harold said. "They got pretty loud when we needed them to be ... it was pretty deafening when Molly hit the 3."

Amber Shelton had 20 points to lead SIUE, which trailed 34-33 at halftime. The Cougars claimed a 33-25 rebounding advantage, led by Shelton's eight. Oliver and Bos had six boards apiece to pace DU, which forced 27 turnovers by the Cougars while committing 22.

It also moved  the Panthers to 2-0 since losing senior guard Becky Flippin for four to six weeks with a knee injury.

(Source Drury)