Box Score The Missouri S&T Lady Miners used a 24-3 run over the final eight minutes of the first half to break open a close game on its way to an 89-71 win over Rockhurst in the GLVC opener for both squads on Thursday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla.

The Lady Miners (4-2, 1-0 GLVC) got off to slow start in the contest making only 4-of-12 from the field but quickly heated by making 13-of-22 the rest of way in the frame taking advantage of six three's and a 12-of-14 performance at the foul line.

The teams traded leads in the first two minutes before a pair of Tamara McCaskill free throws gave S&T a 4-3 lead would not relinquish it eventually building a 27-17 lead by the 8:31 mark on a free throw by Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown).

The Hawks (2-4, 0-1 GLVC) responded cutting the lead to 28-22 on a pair of Meghan Hurley free throws at the 7:23 mark but from that point it was all S&T as it went on a pair of runs over the final seven minutes holding the Hawks without a field goal (0-of-10) the rest of the half.

The Lady Miners went on a 14-1 spurt before a pair of Rockhurst free throws broke the spell at the 4:56 mark. S&T answered right back with a 10-0 run highlighted by a pair of three's from Brittany Percival (Hartville, Mo./Hartville ) and a lay-up by Maria Bratcher (St. Louis, Mo./Jennings ) building its largest lead of the night at 52-25. The Hawks though scored the final four points of the half all on free throws by Gloria Crawford to cut to it 23 at the break.

S&T finished the half shooting 50 percent (17-for-34) from the floor and 6-of-10 (60 percent) from behind the arc and were led by McCaskill with 13 and Katie McElrath (Owasso, Okla./Owasso) with 11.

Defensively the Lady Miners held Rockhurst to just 28 percent shooting (9-of-32) and 0-of-7 from downtown while holding its leading scorer Amy Hake scoreless.

The Hawks came out firing to begin the second half with a 13-2 run behind 11 points from Ali Fromm cutting the deficit to 12 almost three minutes in. It would be the closest they got though as the Lady Miners led by a balance of 15 the rest of the way getting a balanced scoring effort in the half as nine different players scored led by McCaskill with nine and McElrath with eight.

They dominated the paint in the half as well outscoring Rockhurst by a 28-8 margin and shot the ball better in the frame connecting on 15-of-23 (65 percent) from the floor finishing the game 32-of-57 (56 percent).

McCaskill finished the night with 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting and made a career-high 10 free throws in the contest, nine of them in the first half, while McElrath had 19 and Lauren Dubbert (Madison, Mo./Madison) finished with 11.

The Lady Miners return to Bullman on Saturday afternoon for a match-up against defending GLVC West Division and conference tournament champion Drury University beginning at 1 p.m.