Box Score (Springfield, Ill.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners had been doing a solid job at the foul line in the last four contests. That trend didn't carry over on Thursday night as S&T was just 8-of-17 at the charity stripe in a 64-58 loss at Illinois Springfield.

The Prairie Stars (8-8, 3-5 GLVC) as a team shot only 68 percent at the foul line on the season but were a perfect 15-of-15 on Thursday. Alyssa Palmer knocked home all 11 of hers to finish with a game-high 22 points.

The opening half was a back-and-forth affair with S&T (11-4, 6-2 GLVC) leading by as many as five at the midway point but could never pull away from a gritty UIS squad. The Prairie Stars regained the lead on a pair of free throws by Palmer then extended the lead to three on a layup by Carly Goede.

Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) brought the Lady Miners back to within a point, but a three by Megan Bergerud with less than a minute to play extended the lead back to four.

Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) made it a two point game with a layup and then S&T had an opportunity to possibly tie or even take the lead at the break but turned it over in the closing seconds.

The Lady Miners shot just 39 percent in the first half and limited the Prairie Stars to just 37 percent shooting. Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) and

Parks led S&T with 15 points while Bergerud and Palmer combined for 17 for Illinois Springfield.

Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) gave S&T the lead early in the second half on a three but it was their last lead of the night.

UIS responded by scoring 13 of the next 17 points to build an eight point lead five minutes into the second half. The Prairie Stars hit their first four three's of the second half in building that advantage.

S&T got as close as a basket with 4:37 left on a pair of free throws by Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein). The Lady Miners then had three straight opportunities to tie the game but Kemp missed a jumper on the break, then Meyer missed a layup and then was fouled on her follow up attempt and missed both of those with 3:00 remaining.

Palmer put UIS back up by four with a jumper off a fortunate bounce at the 2:32 mark.

Parks made a jumper with 2:13 to play bringing S&T back within two, but once again the Lady Miners couldn't capitalize as

Taylor Jensen (Farmington, Mo./Farmington) missed a jumper and then she missed the front end of a 1-and-1 which could have tied it with 0:36 left.
Bergerud made two free throws with 0:31 to make it a four point contest and then after a Meyer miss Palmer sealed it with a pair of free throws.

S&T shot 44 percent for the contest and was 6-for-13 from downtown but turned it over 19 times which resulted in 20 points for the Prairie Stars.

Kemp led the Lady Miners with 16 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Parks had 13 while Meyer finished with 11.

UIS shot only 39 percent and was 7-of-19 from behind the arc. Palmer led all scorers. Bergerud dropped in 12 while Bailey Beale and Goede had 10 each.

S&T concludes its road trip on Saturday traveling to Quincy, Ill., to take on the Quincy Hawks at 1 p.m.