Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners struggled offensively and had a hard time containing William Jewell in a 74-63 loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

The Lady Miners (2-1) scored the first bucket of the game 0:20 into the contest and wouldn't score again from the floor until the 15:53 mark on a lay-up by Jazmine Bell (Euclid, Ohio/Euclid). S&T missed 17 of its first 21 shots from the floor while it seemed like William Jewell (5-3) couldn't miss from the floor as it built a 25-12 lead with 6:34 to play in the opening half.

The Lady Miners began to heat up over the final six-plus minutes connecting on seven of their final 12 shots of the half including a banked three-pointer at the buzzer by Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) which closed out an 18-9 run cutting the halftime deficit to 34-30.

Despite its early struggles S&T finished the first half shooting 33.3 percent (11-for-33) from the floor, but was only 1-of-7 from behind the three-point line. The Lady Miners free-throw shooting kept them in the contest as they made 7-of-8 at the foul line. They also had issues with turnovers as they turned it over 11 times turning into nine points for the Cardinals. On the flip side S&T forced nine Jewell turnovers but scored only two points of those.

The Cardinals ended up shooting 44.4 percent (12-of-27) in the opening frame and were 4-for-11 from behind the arc.

William Jewell scored five of the first seven points of the second half pushing its lead back to seven points before the Lady Miners scored nine of the next 11 points tying the game at 41-all with 15:20 to play. The two side trade buckets over the next three possessions as the Cardinals went back in front on a pair of free throws by Erica Ferguson at the 13:24 mark.

S&T would tie the game on a lay-up by Bell and then took its first lead since it was 2-0 on an old-fashioned three-point play by Chelsea Stangel (Manitowoc, Wisc./Roncalli ) nearly two minutes later.

Jewell hung around on back-to-back lay-ups by Ferguson and Holly Switzer to regain the lead at 49-48. The Lady Miners would regain the lead on a lay-up by D'Naya Mims at the 8:30 mark and continued to hold the lead for nearly another three minutes.

Ferguson's old-fashioned three-point play gave the Cardinals the lead back at 58-56 before Julie Meyer tied it back up with a jumper with 5:39 to play.

S&T had several opportunities over the course of the next minute to regain the lead but missed three straight shots and then had a chance to the game at the foul line after the under five minute media timeout but Kemp was only able to make 1-of-2 at the stripe.

Hillary Adams and Jessica Stewart would hit back-to-back three's almost 0:30 apart to extend the lead to 66-59 with 3:05 left and the Lady Miners wouldn't get any closer than seven the rest of the way as William Jewell was perfect at the foul line all night including 4-for-4 in the final two minutes.

Free throw shooting was important throughout the second half as the Cardinals were 13-for-13 while S&T was only 7-of-14 at the charity stripe.

The Lady Miners shot the ball better connecting on 13-of-27 from the floor but were unable to take advantage of 12 Cardinal turnovers in the frame.

William Jewell converted on 46.2 percent (12-for-26) of its shots and connected on 3-of-8 from downtown. The Cardinals were also 19-of-19 at the charity stripe

Ferguson led four Jewell players in double figures with 23 points. Steward dropped in 15 while Katie Bond added 10 and Brandie Roberts finished with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Bell and Meyer were the lone S&T players in double figures with 14 and 11 points respectively. All nine players that played for the Lady Miners scored at least three points.

S&T returns to action on Thursday, December 3rd, when it opens up Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a match-up at Illinois-Springfield beginning at 5:30 p.m.