Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners saw its double digit lead slip away with less than five minutes to play, but regrouped to defeat Arkansas-Monticello 79-74 on Saturday night at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. S&T (2-1) had three players in double figures led by Mia Wesley (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) with 23 points.

The Lady Miners held a 63-52 lead after a pair of free throws by Senait McLeod (Miami, Fla./Coral Reef) with 7:27 left to go in the contest. Arkansas-Monticello (2-1) turned up the pressure defensively holding S&T scoreless for three minutes and tied the game with an 11-0 run during that stretch.

The Lady Miners took a timeout with 4:42 to play and came out of the break scoring seven straight to regain the lead. Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) hit a driving layup to put S&T back in front and then McLeod got a steal and made a behind the back pass on the break to Erica Askew (Chicago, Ill./Morgan Park) who made the layup to make it a four-point margin.

After a stop on the defensive end the Lady Miners scored in transition again with Wesley making a layup off a pass from Askew. S&T allowed the Cotton Blossoms to hang around because of its inability to make free throws down the stretch. The Lady Miners converted on just eight of their final 14 attempts at the charity stripe.

UAM got as close as five, but the S&T defense stiffened down the stretch to hold off the hard charging Blossoms.

The first half of this one was a back-and-forth affair for the first 12. The Lady Miners held a 24-23 lead before a Wesley three put them up by four with less than seven minutes to play. That three-pointer sparked a 14-3 run over the next three minutes and saw S&T extend its lead to double digits.

UAM closed the gap to seven with a three from Poohnu Perry with 2:44 to play in the stanza, but the Lady Miners scored the final six points of the half to go into the locker room with a 44-31 advantage.

S&T finished the contest shooting 52 percent (28-for-54) from the floor, were 7-of-11 (64 percent) from three but made just 59 percent of their free throws (16-for-27). Wesley led the Lady Miners while McLeod finished with a career-high 19 points. Sample dropped home 10 while Kylie Cooper (Andover, Kan./Andover) finished with a game-high 15 rebounds.

The Cotton Blossoms were led in scoring by Jordan Goforth with 23 points. Tamia Grady added 12 while Perry finished with eight. As a team Monticello shot 43 percent (26-for-60) from the floor, was 4-of-14 from three and made 18 of its 31 attempts at the foul line.

S&T is back at home next Saturday afternoon hosting Harris Stowe beginning at 1 p.m.