(Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners held a nine point lead with just over five minutes to play in the game, but were outscored 15-3 down the stretch and lost its exhibition game to Livin' the Dream 81-78 on Sat.

The Lady Miners gave up the first basket of the game but only trailed two more times in the opening half. Trailing 18-16 with 12 minutes to play D'Naya Mims sparked an 11-0 run hitting a pair of free throws to tie the game. On the ensuing trip down the court Mims put S&T back on top for the rest of the half with a lay-up at the 11:29 mark. Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) came off the bench and provided a spark as well scoring five points in the run as the Lady Miners built their biggest lead of the night at nine.

Livin' the Dream got as close as 37-35 with under four to play, but S&T closed the half strong scoring 10 of the final 14 points getting six from Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) to head into the locker room with a 47-39 advantage.

The Lady Miners shot 48.5 percent (16-of-33) from the floor and went 13-for-15 (87 percent) at the charity stripe but was just 2-of-9 from three. Livin' The Dream made the same number of shots in two fewer chances to finish shooting 51.6 percent from the field and was 5-of-10 from downtown. S&T held the edge on the boards 18-to-12 and outscored its opposition 16-4 in points off turnovers.

Meyer led all scorers with 12 while Mims and Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) had seven points apiece. Keisha Walker had 10 to lead Livin' the Dream.

Livin' the Dream started the second off strong knocking down its first three attempts from behind the three-point line to take a 48-47 lead.

The two teams then traded the lead over the next five minutes until Livin' the Dream ran off nine straight to take its biggest lead of the game at 61-56 with 11:16 to play.

Knar provided a spark off the bench again knocking down a trio of three's in a span of 1:23 to give S&T the lead back at 67-63 with just under eight minutes to play. The Lady Miners stretched its lead to 75-66 over the next 2:45 matching their largest lead of the night.

Livin' the Dream closed to within 75-72 on a lay-up by Andrea Haegele with 3:14 to play, but Taylor Jensen (Farmington, Mo./Farmington) pushed it back to six with a three to with under three to play. For S&T that would be its last field goal of the night as LTD closed the game on a 9-0 run to take the win 81-78.

Both teams struggled to shoot the ball in the second as Livin' the Dream connected on 38 percent of its shots to just 33 percent for the Lady Miners. S&T hit one more three than LTD but was outscored by eight from the foul line.

Livin' the Dream finished the game shooting 44 percent (28-for-63) from the floor and was 9-for-23 from behind the three-point line. Walker and Brittany Boyle led five players in double figures with 16 apiece.

The Lady Miners went 26-for-63 (41.3 percent) from the floor but was only 7-of-23 from behind the line. S&T was led in scoring by Meyer with 18, Knar with 14 and Parks dropped in 13. Meyer finished the contest with a double-double also pulling down 11 rebounds.

The Lady Miners held a 36-to-26 edge on the boards but turned it over 19 times, 13 in the second half.

S&T opens its season on Friday night, November 12 at home against Nebraska-Kearney beginning at 6 p.m.