ROLLA, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners held off the Culver-Stockton Wildcats to pick up a 55-48 win and snap its five-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon.

The game started out as a back-and-forth affair with S&T (4-5) scoring the first four points of the game before Culver-Stockton (7-3) answered with five straight to take its only lead of the game.

The Lady Miners countered with an 8-0 run to regain the lead thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Linda Pagrode (Jaunolaine, Latvia/Riga 99) and a layup by Jamy Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) to grab a five-point lead. The Wildcats evened the game with five straight points from Randi Lee Plunkett and Brianna Marzette with 14:03 to go in the half.

Leigh-Ann Kesper (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) put S&T back in front for good scoring a layup from Demetria Snaden (Evansville, Ind./Evansville North) sparking a 12-0 run for the Lady Miners as they held Culver-Stockton scoreless for 8:23 to take a 12-point lead.

Katie Davis broke the run momentarily, but Snaden answered with a 3-pointer and Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled) hit a driving layup to extend the lead to 15 points with 4:03 left in the half. The Wildcats got back-to-back buckets from Larra Kubinski to get back within 11, but Elsie Greenwood (Breckenridge, Mo./Penney High School)'s three with 0:35 left pushed the margin back to 14 points.

S&T had a chance to extend the further, but turned it over with 0:11 left in the stanza and Culver-Stockton capitalized as TJ Hart hit a layup with 0:04 left make it 32-20 at the break.

The Lady Miners shot the ball well in the first 20 minutes making 12 of 22 shots and shot 60 percent from beyond the arc, but turned it over 12 times in the half. Pagrode led S&T with six points while Bland and Snaden added five points each.

The Wildcats shot just 33 percent (9-for-27) from the field and were just 2-of-7 from the 3-point line. Plunkett led all scorers with seven points while Larra Kubinski had six points.

Culver-Stockton opened the second half aggressively with a 12-2 run to cut the S&T lead to two points four minutes into the frame. Marzette had six points in the run while Hart added four.

The Lady Miners extended the lead back to six points getting four points from Jamy Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) in the run.

The Wildcats continued to hang around though and were back within a basket after a three-pointer by Jasmine Mathews with 9:52 left.

Elsie Greenwood (Breckenridge, Mo./Penney High School) hit a pair of free throws at the 8:34 mark pushing the lead back to four points. S&T went scoreless for the next two minutes before Snaden converted on an old-fashioned 3-point play to make it 49-42 with 6:30 to go.

S&T did a good job defensively holding Culver-Stockton without a point for nearly six minutes until Hart scored off a turnover and then Kubinski added a jumper 0:40 later to make it 49-46. The Wildcats had multiple opportunities to tie the game but missed five shots over the next 2:30.

The Lady Miners weren't much better missing three shots and turning it over once during that span but were finally able to put the game away with less than 0:30 remaining. Greenwood was fouled in the corner in front of the S&T bench and pulled down to the floor by Hart. Hart picked up her fifth foul and was assessed a technical foul on the play. Greenwood hit all four free throws to push the margin to 53-46 with 28.6 seconds to play.

Kati Davis hit two free throws with 0:06 to go to make it a five-point game, but Greenwood was fouled again and she hit two more free throws to seal the win.

The Lady Miners shot only 27 percent (7-for-26) from the field in the second half to finish the game shooting 39.6 percent. They were 6-of-14 from beyond the arc and went 11-for-11 at the foul line. Greenwood led all scorers with 11 points while Pagrode and Snaden had eight points apiece.

Culver-Stockton shot 28 percent from the floor in the second half and was 18-for-59 (30.5 percent) for the game. It was 5-of-19 from three (26.3 percent) and 7-for-11 at the foul line. Hart led the Wildcats with 10 points while Marzette and Plunkett finished with nine points each.

S&T's next game will be after the New Year when it travels to Rensselaer, Ind., to take on Saint Joseph's College in GLVC action on Fri., Jan. 2 at 5:30 p.m.