Box Score

(Fort Smith, Ark.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners made the plays down the stretch closing the game on a 10-3 run to defeat Arkansas-Fort Smith 65-59 on Sunday afternoon in Fort Smith, Ark. The game was tightly contested with each side answering the other's best shot and featured 10 ties and nine lead changes.

S&T (8-2) got off to a great start opening the game knocking down six of its first nine shots in building a 13-6 lead five minutes in. Fareedah Washington (Forrest City, Ark./Forrest City) scored six points in that run and was 3-for-3 from the field.

Ashley Arnold pulled the Lady Lions (8-3) to within 13-12 with back-to-back threes with 12:57 left in the opening half.

The rest of the first half saw neither side hold bigger than a three point lead.

Arkansas-Fort Smith regained the lead on a three by Ashlee McDonald with 8:30 left in the opening half. As it turned out that would be the last field goal that UAFS would make in the frame.

The Lady Miners had a scoring drought of its own going nearly four minutes without a bucket until Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) tied the game at 23 all with a three at the five minute mark.

Chelsea Sublett put the Lady Lions up by a point by making 1-of-2 at the charity stripe with 4:12 left.

S&T regained the lead on a layup by D'Naya Mims (Chicago, Ill./Harlan Community Academy) with 2:26 left and then extended its lead to 27-24 on a jumper by Taylor Jensen (Farmington, Mo./Farmington) with 0:29 left in the frame.

Both sides cooled off shooting the ball after their hot starts. The Lady Miners shot 38 percent (11-for-29) from the floor while Arkansas-Fort Smith was only 9-of-26 (34.6 percent). S&T held a 23-to-17 advantage on the boards resulting in a 9-to-7 edge in second chance points.

Washington had six points to lead the Lady Miners while Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) and Knar chipped in with five apiece.

Arnold and Tashley Gaines had six points apiece to lead the Lady Lions.

The start of the second half was a scoring contest between Coby Hill and Jensen as Hill scored UAFS's first five points while Jensen had four for S&T.

After the Lady Lions closed to within 31-30 on another free throw by Sublett, the Lady Miners went on a 10-3 run over the next three-plus minutes to build a 41-33 advantage with just over 12 minutes to play.

Knar and Mims helped S&T build a nine point lead by the midway point of the second half, but Fort Smith refused to go away answering with a 9-0 run highlighted by a five point play.

The Lady Miners regained the lead on layups by Meyer and Washington to build a 50-46 lead with exactly seven minutes to play.

The Lady Lions then went on a 7-1 surge regaining a two point lead on a pair of free throws by Whitney Lee with 4:45 to play.

Washington and Meyer teamed up again to give S&T a 55-53 lead with less than four to play.

Hill gave Fort Smith its last lead of the ball game converting an old-fashioned three-point play at the 3:29 mark.

Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) hit the biggest shot of the game burying a wide open three from deep in the corner off an out of bounds play with three seconds left on the shot clock and just over three minutes left in the game.

Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) made 1-of-2 at the line to push the lead to 59-56 with 1:39 to play. Meyer pushed the lead to five converting on a back door layup with less than a minute remaining.

The Lady Miners then played solid defense forcing a contested three and Kemp came away with the rebound and was fouled with 0:39 to play.

She went to the line and made both free throws to push the lead out to seven.

Sublett missed a three on the next possession but Whitney Lee grabbed the board and put in a layup with 0:30 to go.

The Lady Lions were forced to foul and sent Kemp back to the line where she made both to make it 65-58.

Lee would make a free throw with 0:15 left for the final margin.

S&T finished the game shooting 42 percent (25-for-60) from the floor and outrebounded Fort Smith by a 46-to-43 margin.

Meyer had 17 points to lead the Lady Miners while Kemp had 12 while Washington and Knar had eight apiece.

The Lady Lions were only 20-of-59 (33.9 percent) from the floor and led in scoring by Lee with 17, 15 in the second half, and Hill with 14.

S&T returns to action on January 2, when it travels to St. Louis to take on Missouri-St. Louis to open the second half of the season.