Box Score (Springfield, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners struggled to get into any rhythm on both ends of the floor in the second half of its 62-51 defeat to Union on Friday at the DoubleTree Inn/Houlihan's Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Drury University.

Playing with just eight players the Lady Miners (3-2) played well for the first 20 minutes, but couldn't string together a complete game as Union (3-0) dominated the second half outscoring S&T 42-21.

The Lady Bulldogs opened the second half on an 8-0 run to trim S&T's halftime lead from 10 points to a basket just two minutes into the second half. Union took its first lead of the contest on a three from Kelsey Risner with 8:29 to play, but the Lady Miners hung in their staying within one possession over the next four minutes.

Astrid Hutteman hit her third triple of the half to make it 53-47 with 4:34 to play. S&T countered with a layup by Kylie Cooper (Andover, Kan./Andover) at the 3:46 mark, but wouldn't get any closer the rest of the way. The dagger was a three from LaTesa McLaughlin that spun all the way around the rim and eventually fell through with 1:32 to play.

The Lady Bulldogs outrebounded S&T 22-16 in the second half and had eight offensive rebounds which led to 10 second chance points.

S&T scored the first points of the game on a layup by Jaaron Kassanavoid (Lawson, Mo./Lawson) and never relinquished the lead in the first half. Union closed the deficit to two before the Lady Miners went on a 12-3 run spanning 3:17 to build their largest lead of the half at 11 points on a jumper by Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) with 11:23 remaining in the frame.

The Lady Bulldogs showed their tenacity closing to 22-20 on a layup by Amy Philamlee with 4:57 to play in the stanza. From that point S&T would go onto score the final eight points of the half to regain its double digit lead and go into the locker room with a 30-20 lead.

Union came into the contest shooting 53.1 percent from the field and 48.3 percent from behind the arc, but made just 21 of 63 (33.3 percent) and was 9-for-35 (26 percent) from downtown. Union was led in scoring by Philamlee with 15 points while Risner and Hutteman had 14 and 13 respectively.

After shooting 46 percent (11-for-24) from the floor in the first half the Lady Miners went 6-of-23 (26 percent) in the second half and were 4-for-15 from beyond the arc and connected on 59 percent of their free throw attempts. Knar led all scorers with 16 points while Greenwood added 10 more.

S&T returns to action on Saturday when it takes on Missouri Western in the final game of the DoubleTree Inn/Houlihan's Thanksgiving Classic at Drury at 7:45 p.m.