Box Score Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri S&T Lady Miners were unable to overcome a strong second half performance by Missouri Southern's Myosha Barnes and Danielle DeVader, who combined to score 29 second half points, in a 75-69 loss at MSSU on Saturday afternoon in Joplin. The Lady Miners shot 50 percent (14-of-28) from the floor and three (7-of-14) but missed five free throws in the second half while the Lions connected on 64 percent (16-of-25) and knocked home 5-of-9 from downtown in the frame for the victory.

The first half was a defensive struggle between the former MIAA foes with neither side shooting the ball very well early on as the teams combined to score just 15 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Lions (5-0) went on an 11-2 over the next three minutes to build their lead to 18-10 its largest of the game.

S&T (3-2) began to chip away at the deficit getting solid production from Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown), Lauren Dubbert (Madison, Mo./Madison) and Lydia Karlefors (Sunderbyn, Sweden/Lulea Basketgymnasium) as they scored eight straight points at one point to get within 21-19 at the 5:32 mark. After a Katie McElrath (Owasso, Okla./Owasso) jumper tied the game Dubbert gave S&T its first lead since early in the ball game with a pair of free throws.

Southern would tie the game back up on Nicole Helfrich jumper but the Lady Miners responded by scoring six straight points, including four from Dubbert to take their largest lead of the half at 29-23 with 2:09 to play. The Lions cut the lead in half nearly 0:30 later on Jolea Apon three from the wing but S&T had a chance to push its lead back to six right before the half as McElrath's three at the buzzer rimmed out.

MSSU began the second half strong scoring the first four points of the frame to regain the advantage but Tamara McCaskill (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) knocked home a three to give the advantage back to S&T. After trading baskets over the next couple of minutes the Lady Miners began to assert themselves going on a 15-4 run to build a 49-41 advantage highlighted by a pair of threes from Jenny Dorman (Pella, Iowa/Pella) with 10:53 left.

After Southern cut it to six, Jazmine Bell (Euclid, Ohio/Euclid) buried a three from the top of the key to push the advantage back to nine but Apon came right back with another three to get it back to six. After a rushed three by the Lady Miners, the Lions went on a 7-2 spurt over the next three minutes to regain a 57-56 advantage with 5:28 to play. S&T wouldn't go away though getting a three from McCaskill to regain the lead at 59-57 only 0:11 later.

In the last five minutes it became the Barnes and DeVader show as they combined to score 11 points down the stretch including a pair of three's from DeVader including the go-ahead three at the 2:34 mark. S&T had a chance to tie the game but McElrath missed a jumper and Barnes made it a four point game at 71-67 with 1:43 to play.

The Lady Miners had a chance to tie the game at the foul line but made just 2-of-4 in the final minute and a half while MSSU closed out the contest by making four of its six from the line to seal the deal.

McCaskill led four S&T players in double figures with 18 points. Dubbert finished with 14, (only four in the second half) McElrath had 12 and Bell dropped home 11.