Box Score (Kirksville, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners trailed Truman State 17-14 with 9:14 left in the opening half on Thursday and then the Bulldogs closed the half on a 23-5 run to end the half en route to an 80-52 win at Pershing Arena. S&T dropped its fourth straight game and has lost its last three road games by an average of 26 points.

The game started sluggish for both teams as they struggled to find their offensive rhythm going back and forth for the first five-plus minutes. Truman (14-4, 8-2 GLVC) held an early lead, but the Lady Miners (6-12, 2-8 GLVC) hung in with the high powered Bulldog attack for the first 10 minutes.

Truman held a 12-11 lead before getting buckets from Micahlina Tomczak and Amy Briggs to push the lead to five points with 9:30 to play. Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) answered Briggs three-pointer to close the deficit to three just 0:16 later. That would be the closest the Lady Miners got the rest of the way as the Bulldogs went on an 11-2 run over the next five and a half minutes to stretch the lead to 12 points.

Knar countered with her second trey of the half at the 5:35 mark and that basket was the final one of the half for S&T who missed its last nine shots from the field and both free throws of the stanza. Meanwhile, Truman finished the frame scoring the last 12 points and made 3 of its last 7 field goal attempts and was 5-for-7 at the foul line.

The Lady Miners shot just 28 percent (8-of-29) from the floor in the opening stanza, were 2-for-8 from three and made only one of their six free throw attempts. Knar led S&T with six points while six others had two points apiece.

After their slow start Truman heated up to shoot nearly 39 percent (12-of-31) from the field, was 3-of-9 from three and 13-for-18 at the foul line. Bianca Szafarowicz led all scorers with 11 points while Briggs and Nicole Gloor had eight points each.

The Bulldogs scored seven of the first nine points to begin the second half to extend their lead to 26 points just 2:11 into the frame. The Lady Miners trimmed the lead to 19 points just five minutes later and would hang around the 20-point mark for the next six minutes.

Truman stretched its lead to 28 points in the final couple of minutes as the two teams traded baskets down the stretch.

S&T shot nearly 40 percent (11-for-28) in the second half to finish the game shooting 19-of-57 (33.3 percent) from the floor. It was 4-for-14 from beyond the arc and just 10-of-19 from the foul line. The Lady Miners were outrebounded by the Bulldogs 40-to-34. Knar led the way for S&T with 12 points while Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) added nine points and 11 rebounds. Kylie Cooper (Andover, Kan./Andover) and Erica Askew (Chicago, Ill./Morgan Park) dropped in eight points apiece.

Truman shot a blistering 58 percent in the second half to finish the game making 26-of-55 (47.3 percent) from the floor. It was 8-for-19 from the three-point line and shot 69 percent (20-of-29) at the charity stripe. Allison Wiese led four Bulldog players in double figures with 13 points. Allie Norton finished with 12 points, Szafarowicz had 11 and Briggs contributed 10.

S&T continues its four-game road trip on Saturday when they travel to Quincy, Ill., to take on the 15^th ranked Hawks of Quincy University at 1 p.m. Quincy defeated seventh ranked Drury 82-79 on a three-pointer by Hannah Weedman with 0:07 left on Thursday.