Box Score

(Rolla, Mo.) – It wasn't exactly pretty at times but the Missouri S&T Lady Miners won its ninth straight season opener defeating Nebraska-Kearney 70-62 on Friday evening at the Bullman.

The Lady Miners improved to 23-14 all-time in season opening games and have won 24 of their last 25 home openers.

The two sides traded baskets to open the contest before S&T (1-0) took the lead on a jumper by Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) to make it 4-3. The Lopers (0-1) tied it briefly on a lay-up by Vanessa Leeper, but the Lady Miners charged ahead with a 10-4 run to take the lead 15-9. UNK cut the lead to 15-14 on a lay-up by Debi Johnson with 11:59 remaining.

S&T stretched its lead to the biggest of the night with a 9-0 run making it 24-14 with 8:40 remaining in the half. Katelyn Heil (Dexter, Mo./Dexter) started the run with her second straight three and Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) dropped in four during the spurt. The two sides traded threes before the Lopers outscored the Lady Miners 18-6 down the stretch to take a 35-33 lead into the break.

Both teams shot the ball over 40 percent with S&T having the slight edge at 41.7-to-41.2. The Lady Miners were 10-of-12 at the foul line but were outrebounded 19-to-14. Each team scored seven points off of turnovers while S&T's bench had a 9-to-2 edge.

Johnson led all scorers with 12 in the opening frame while Leeper had 10. Meyer had 10 to lead the Lady Miners.

Nebraska-Kearney began the second half right where they left off in the first by scoring seven of the first nine points to take its biggest lead of the night at 42-35. S&T battled back into the contest getting to within one on Heil's third trey of the night, but the Lopers answered with an old-fashioned three-point play to push the lead back to four.

The Lady Miners continued to trail until a jumper by Kemp gave S&T the lead back at 53-51 with 9:01 to play in the game. UNK tied the game at 54 all with another three-point play by Nicole Arp with 6:38 left to play.

That would be the last tie of the game as Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) came off the bench to spark the Lady Miners with two three's igniting an 8-0 run to give them a 62-54 advantage with 4:19 left.

Nebraska-Kearney cut it to four a minute later but couldn't get any closer as S&T made the plays and its free throws down the stretch to pull away with the win.

The Lady Miners shot 45 percent (13-of-29) from the floor in the second stanza and was 4-for-9 (44 percent) from downtown. They outrebounded the Lopers by a 19-to-14 margin and had 10 assists to just six turnovers.

UNK shot 42 percent (11-of-26) from the floor but were 0-of-4 from downtown and had 12 turnovers.

For the game S&T shot 43 percent (23-of-53) from the floor and was 7-for-17 from behind the arc. The Lady Miners finished the game shooting 68 percent at the foul line (17-of-25).

S&T's bench outscored the Lopers bench by a 25-to-7 margin.

UNK was 25-of-60 (41.7 percent) from the floor, but just 4-of-15 from three and finished with 19 turnovers.

Meyer led three Lady Miners in double figures with 12 points. Kemp and Heil had 11 each while Taylor Jensen (Farmington, Mo./Farmington) and Knar had nine apiece. Meyer also pulled down nine rebounds and dished out seven assists.

Johnson led all scorers with 16 points. Leeper had 14 while Megan Becker had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

S&T returns home for match-up with Fontbonne University on Saturday evening beginning at 5:30 p.m.