ROLLA, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners return to the friendly confines of the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building searching for its first Great Lakes Valley Conference win of the season against Bellarmine on Thursday evening. The Lady Miners try to reverse a trend that has seen them drop seven of their last eight contests.
S&T had its opportunities to pick up a couple of road wins on its last trip in losses at Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis. Against the Pumas, the Lady Miners led by five with seven minutes to play in the game before enduring a scoreless stretch of 5:30 as Saint Joseph's ended the game on a 13-3 run to take the victory.
At Indianapolis, S&T played from behind the whole game and every time it got close the Greyhounds hit big shots to stretch the lead back out. The Lady Miners trailed 48-45 after a pair of free throws by
Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) with nine minutes left in the contest. The next two trips down for the 'Hounds, Kelly Walter hit three's from the same spot sparking the decisive 13-0 run.
Scoring has been a problem for S&T over the past three games as its averaging only 55.7 points per game while allowing just 59 per contest. During the current stretch the Lady Miners are shooting 39.1 percent from the field, 36 percent from beyond the arc, 90 percent from the foul line, but have turned the ball over 18 times per game.
Defensively, guarding the three-point line has become an issue over the last two games allowing Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis to shot 40 percent from beyond the arc and make a total of 18 three-pointers.
Bellarmine enters play this week with a record of 7-3, 2-0 in the GLVC after opening the conference part of its schedule last weekend with wins against Rockhurst and William Jewell at home. As a team, the Knights are averaging 74.1 points per game while yielding 68.4 per contest. They're shooting 40.5 percent from the floor, have connected on 54-of-185 attempts from three, are shooting 75 percent at the foul line and outrebounding opponents by three rebounds per game.
Whitney Hartlage leads the team in scoring with 12.3 points per contest while Destony Curry is dropping in 11.4 per game and Beth Bowers is adding nearly 10 points per game off the bench. Morgan Clemons leads the team in rebounding with 7.1 per contest while Mackenzie Martinez leads in assists with 43.
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