Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) - Down by six at halftime the Missouri S&T Lady Miners got strong second half performances from Lauren Dubbert (Madison, Mo./Madison) and Jazmine Bell (Euclid, Ohio/Euclid), who combined to score 32 of the team's 47 points in the frame, carrying the Lady Miners to a 67-62 win over Kentucky Wesleyan on Thursday evening at Billy Key Court.

S&T (9-9, 3-7 GLVC) got off to a slow start turning it over three times and missed its first five shots while the Panthers (9-10, 4-6 GLVC) made four of their first six in racing out to a 9-0 lead just four minutes in. The Lady Miners finally got on the board on a three pointer by Tamara McCaskill at the 14:41 mark.

The Lady Miners cut the deficit to five behind four straight points from Katie McElrath (Owasso, Okla./Owasso) but KWC got back-to-back lay-ups to extend the lead back to nine just two minutes later. S&T got as close as three on a couple of different occasions but couldn't get any closer than that though the opportunities were there. It appeared the Panthers would head into the locker room with a 23-20 advantage but Katie Behrens nailed a three as the shot clock was expiring to give them a six point lead at the break.

Kentucky Wesleyan shot the ball at a 48 percent clip (11-of-23) from the floor and out rebounded S&T by an 18-12 margin. The Lady Miners shot just 8-for-26 (31 percent) from the floor in the opening frame.

McElarth, McCaskill and Brittany Percival (Hartville, Mo./Hartville ) combined to score 16 of S&T's 20 points in the opening frame. Amanda Harnist led KWC with seven.

After trading buckets in the opening couple of minutes to begin the second half the Lady Miners went an 18-4 run that spanned eight minutes getting 14 of those from Dubbert and Bell to take their first lead of the evening and wouldn't look back. After starting the first half Dubbert came off the bench to provide a spark in the second frame shooting 4-of-5 from the floor, 2-of-3 from behind the arc and 8-for-8 at the foul line in 14 minutes.

The Panthers got as close as six before S&T went on another long run pushing its lead back to double digits. It would build its lead to as many as 14 points with just under a minute remaining before KWC hit a trio of three's in a span of 0:30 seconds to close the deficit to 65-58 with 0:18 remaining.

The Lady Miners though were able to hold on down the stretch going to the foul line making 6-of-10.

Dubbert finished the contest matching her career-high with 18, all in the second half, to lead four S&T players in double figures. Bell dropped in 16 while McCaskill contributed 12 and McElrath had 11.

As a team S&T shot 13-of-26 (50 percent) from the field in the frame to finish the contest shooting at just over 40 percent (21-for-52). It also did its job at the foul line going 21-of-27 including 19-of-24 in the second half.

After the Panthers strong shooting first half the Lady Miners did a better job in the second half holding them to just 11-of-28 from the field until the final minute when KWC finished the contest hitting four of its final five shots. It shoot 46 percent (26-for-56) from the field but were only 5-of-19 from three and just 5-for-10 at the foul line.

Behrens and Danielle Roe each had 12 to lead the Panthers while Harnist and Coronelli each contributed 11.

The Lady Miners return home on Saturday afternoon to take on Southern Indiana beginning at 1 p.m. at Billy Key Court.