Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners struggled to shoot the basketball all night long and those problems proved costly as it dropped a 49-42 decision to the St. Mary's Rattlers in its home opener on Friday night. S&T (1-1) shot just 23.5 percent for the game and made only 12 field goals.

The Rattlers (3-0) jumped out to an early 8-1 lead before Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) came off the bench to provide a spark hitting back-to-back three's to cut the deficit to 10-7. St. Mary's weathered the Lady Miner run and pushed its lead back to seven at 19-12 with 9:32 left in the opening half. S&T responded with eight straight and took its first lead of the night with 5:53 to play when Knar converted on a fast break layup to make it 20-19. It was short lived though as Lia Kioa answered with a three to put STMU back in front 22-20. The Lady Miners took the lead with three straight free throws as Knar hit a pair and Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) made 1-of-2 to move back in front 23-22 with 3:43 remaining.

Morgan Pullins gave the Rattlers the lead back on a layup with 3:21 to play. Kylie Cooper (Andover, Kan./Andover) made two free throws with just over two minutes remaining to put S&T back in front 25-24. Liz Boyd would answer with her second three of the half to put St. Mary's ahead for good 27-25. The Lady Miners had a chance to tie with 0:23 left but Leigh-Ann Kesper (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) made just 1-of-2 at the foul line. A missed three by the Rattlers gave S&T a chance to take the lead into the break. Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) got the rebound and pushed it ahead to Dajae Williams (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood). Williams tried to go to the bucket, but was called for an offensive foul with 0:03 left. Dezirae Ellis tried a jumper at the buzzer but was off the mark.

The Lady Miners shot 28.0 percent (7-for-25) from the field in the opening half and was 3-of-9 from downtown. They also made nine free throws to just two for St. Mary's. Knar led all scorers with 13 in the opening stanza.

The Rattlers shot 39.3 percent (11-for-28) and was led in scoring by Boyd and Pullins with six apiece.

St. Mary's opened the second half on a 10-0 run spanning nearly seven minutes on the clock to take a 37-26 lead. S&T missed its first nine shots of the second and all six of its free throw attempts. Knar finally snapped the scoreless streak with a layup at the 13:15 mark.

The Rattlers scored five in a row to take their biggest lead of the night at 42-28 on Jackie Woods's three with 11:09 to play. The Lady Miners began to chip away at the deficit with a 12-1 run to close to within 43-40 with 6:04 left in the game. Six of those points came from the charity stripe while Sample added four from the field.

After a jumper by Boyd pushed the St. Mary's lead back to five, Erica Askew (Chicago, Ill./Morgan Park) answered with an off-balance layup to make it a three-point game again with less than five minutes to play. S&T would be held scoreless the remainder of the game as Pullins hit two layups for the final margin.

The Lady Miners shot only 19.2 percent (5-for-26) from the field in the second half and missed all three of its three-point attempts. They were also 6-of-12 at the foul line. Knar led all scorers with 15 points. Parks finished with 10 points. Sample had six points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Pullins had 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench to lead St. Mary's. The Rattlers shot 43 percent (9-of-21) from the field in the second half and finished the game going 20-for-49 (41 percent) from the field.

S&T returns to action next Friday when it travels to Winter Park, Fla., to take on the University of Charleston (W.V.) in the Rollins Thanksgiving Classic. Tip-off that day will be 1 p.m. (CT).