Box Score Photo Gallery vs. Upper Iowa

(Rolla, Mo.) – It wasn't the prettiest of games but the Missouri S&T Lady Miners were able to overcome a late charge by Upper Iowa and hold off the Peacocks 72-68 in its season opener on Friday night at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla.

Senior Andrea Downs scored 20 points against her former squad including 13 in the second half to help the Lady Miners (1-0) win their eighth straight season opener and their 23^rd home opener in the last 24 years.

S&T struggled to shoot the ball for most of the first half and trailed Upper Iowa (0-3) for a vast majority of it as the Peacocks hit 11-of-22 from the floor and led by as many as five points in the frame. Trailing 23-21 with 4:42 to play the Lady Miners closed the first half strong going on a 16-4 run sparked by Julie Meyer and Fareedah Washington with four each to go into the locker room with a 37-27 advantage.

Despite shooting only 35 percent (14-of-40) from the floor in the first half S&T controlled the glass outrebounding Upper Iowa by a 26-15 margin including 13-1 on the offensive boards. The Lady Miners also connected on 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and were 6-for-9 at the foul line. S&T's bench outscored the Peacocks bench 20-1 and turned 12 UIU turnovers into 12 points.

The Lady Miners scored the first four points of the second half to build their to double digits before Upper Iowa began to cut into the lead with a 9-0 run to make it a five point ball game with 13:33 to play.

Meyer and Downs then proceeded to score 10 of S&T's next 12 points as it built its largest lead of the night at 53-38 on lay-up by Washington at the 10:41 mark. The Peacocks hung around in the next five minutes eventually cutting the lead to just three points with a 12-0 run behind the trio of Cassandra Deiters, Heidi McKean and Lana Otting.

Hailee Parks put the Lady Miners back up by five but Deiters quickly answered to cut it back to 55-52. Parks pushed the lead back to six points on an old fashioned three-point play but once again Upper Iowa refused to go away as it got within 60-58 on a jumper by McKean with 2:06 to play.

Downs put S&T back up by four with 1:53 to play on a jumper and the Lady Miners had their chances to seal the game away at the foul line but missed the front end of back-to-back one-and one's. McKean cut the deficit back to three by splitting a pair of free throws with 1:35 to play.

S&T went back up by five with 1:07 to go on a lay-up by D'Naya Mims but she was unable to convert the three-point play. McKean then split another pair of free throws to cut the lead back down to four with 0:54 left.

Forced to foul Upper Iowa fouled Downs and she hit both free throws to extend the lead back to six, but Otting quickly answered back with a lay-up making it 66-62 with 0:37 left. Downs again went to the foul line and made both free throws then after a missed three pointer by the Peacocks, Courtney Kemp was fouled and made 1-of-2 stretching the lead to 69-62 with only 0:24 ticks left.

A three by Otting cut the deficit back to four six seconds later. Again forced to foul Upper Iowa sent Meyer to the line and she made only 1-of-2 keeping at a five point margin. Paige DeVine knocked in a three with 0:12 left to cut the lead to 70-68 but Downs nailed down the victory by sinking a pair of free throws with 0:08 left.

The Lady Miners shot the ball a little better in the second half connecting on 40 percent of their attempts (12-of-30) but were only 1-for-8 from behind the arc and just 10-of-18 at the foul line.

S&T dominated the glass with a 48-to-33 advantage and dominated with 20 second chance points to only six for Upper Iowa.

The Peacocks shot 48.4 percent from the floor in the second half (15-for-31) but made only 2-of-10 from downtown and were 9-for-12 at the charity stripe.

Downs led all scorers with her 20 points while Meyer finished with 15. Mims pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds while Kemp and Washington had nine and eight rebounds respectively.

Deiters led four Upper Iowa players in double figures with 18 points. She was joined by McKean with 16, Otting dropped in 15 while DeVine added 14. Deiters was the leading rebounder with eight boards.

The Lady Miners return to action on Saturday afternoon against Wayne State (Mich.) beginning at 3 p.m., at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.