ROLLA, Mo. – On a night when its shots weren't falling Missouri S&T had to grind out a 53-41 win over LeMoyne-Owen College on Friday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. S&T finished the game shooting 38.5 percent from the floor while holding the Lady Magicians to just 21.7 percent shooting.

The Lady Miners (3-0) trailed by two early before going on a 7-0 run to take the lead after a three-pointer by Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled) with 10:34 left in the opening half. It was a lead they wouldn't relinquish. S&T though was unable to shake free from LeMoyne-Owen the rest of the half as the two sides answered each other's runs.

The Lady Miners took a 20-17 lead into the intermission as the two teams combined to shoot 22.2 percent (14-for-63) in the opening half and were just 3-of-21 from beyond the three-point line.

Kimberly Runge (Freedom, Wis./Freedom) led S&T with six points in the opening stanza while Tenesha Wright had six for the Lady Magicians.

LeMoyne-Owen cut the halftime deficit to one with a bucket to open the second half, but S&T answered with a 9-0 run spanning five minutes to take a double digit on a layup by Demetria Snaden (Evansville, Ind./Evansville North).

That lead grew to 12 points before the Lady Magicians trimmed the margin to five with a 7-0 of their own halfway through the frame. The Lady Miners then put the game away with a 17-4 run over the next seven-plus minutes getting four points from Brittany Andersen (Saint John, Ind./Andrean ) and three each from Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) and Bland.

LeMoyne-Owen got as close as 12 points and that was on a three-pointer at the buzzer.

S&T warmed up in the second half shooting 50 percent (12-for-24) from the floor, was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and converted on five of its seven free throw attempts. It outrebounded the Lady Magicians 51-39, but turned it over 25 times. S&T's bench outscored LeMoyne-Owen's 26-8.

Andersen and Bland led the way with eight points each for the Lady Miners while Arand, Jamy Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) and Runge had six points each. Douvier also had 10 rebounds while Leigh-Ann Kesper (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) added nine rebounds and set a new school single game record with eight blocked shots. She broke the mark of six set by Heather Hartman at Kansas State on Dec. 27, 1994. The eight blocked shots are also the second most ever in a single game in GLVC history.

Wright was the lone player from either squad to finish in double figures with 13 points. Darriel Johnson added eight and Latrice Sears finished with seven. The Lady Magicians were just 15-for-69 from the floor, 2-of-20 from beyond the arc and shot 43 percent (9-for-21) at the foul line. They forced 12 steals and scored 14 points off of S&T's turnovers.

The Lady Miners conclude their four-game homestand on Saturday when it takes 20^th ranked Central Missouri at 4 p.m.