San Antonio, Texas – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners made a furious rally in the fourth quarter but its comeback attempt came up short in 81-76 loss against Angelo State at Bill Greehey Arena on Friday night at the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic in San Antonio. The Lady Miners dropped their straight contest while the Rambelles improved to 3-0 on the season.

The two sides traded points to begin the contest as S&T (2-2) and ASU were tied at 4-4 in the early going. The Belles took the lead for a good on a Christina Robinson layup off a turnover 2:15 into the game. The Lady Miners remained within striking distance at 12-9 after Bria Pierce (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley North) hit 1-of-2 free throws, but Angelo State hit four straight three's to push the lead to 15 with more than two minutes to play in the opening frame. Elsie Greenwood (Breckenridge, Mo./Penney High School) cut the deficit to 13 with a layup in the closing seconds of the quarter and then Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled) hit a layup to start the second period to cut the deficit to 11 points.

The Belles countered with an 11-0 run over the next three-plus minutes to stretch their lead to 35-13 with 6:10 to play in the opening half. Christina Robinson hit her second trey of the half to key the run. S&T tried to cut into the deficit scoring six straight points behind four from Bland to trim the deficit to 35-19 about 80 seconds later. The two sides then traded the final 10 points of the half as ASU went into the break with a 44-24 lead.

The Lady Miners made 41 percent (9-of-22) of their field goal attempts in the first half but went 0-for-5 from beyond the arc and shot 67 percent at the foul line. They turned the ball over 17 times in the first 20 minutes resulting in 14 points for the Belles. Bland led S&T with six points while Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ) added five. Greenwood and Sandra Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) added four points each.

Angelo State hit 43 percent (16-for-37) from the floor and was 7-of-11 from the three-point line in the opening half. KeAnna Kelly led all scorers with 12 points in the first half knocking down four of six attempts from three while Robinson dropped in 10.

The Belles opened the second half outscoring the Lady Miners 12-6 in the first four-plus minutes to extend its halftime lead to 56-30. Diamalises Rivera scored four of those points while Jasmine Prophet and Robinson had three points apiece.

The two sides traded buckets the rest of the third quarter as Angelo State headed into the fourth quarter with 21-point lead but only outscored S&T by a 24-23 margin.

The Belles pushed their lead to 70-47 to open the fourth quarter before the Lady Miners went on a 9-2 run trimming the deficit to just 16 after a layup by Pierce. ASU pushed the lead back to 19 points a couple of times but S&T continued to battle back scoring the next eight points to cut the lead to 79-68 after another Pierce layup with 1:42 left in the contest.

The Lady Miners cut the deficit to single digits after Pierce hit a pair of throws only 0:23 later. Prophet converted a layup on the other end to extend the lead back to 11 before S&T scored the final six points of the contest.

The Lady Miners outscored the Belles 29-13 in the final quarter and shot close to 60 percent in the second half (20-of-34). They hit 10 of 13 free throws and were 2-for-3 from downtown. Pierce scored 19 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 22 points. She was joined in double figures by Greenwood and Gray with 12 points each while Bland added 11.

The Belles finished the game shooting 46 percent (31-for-67) from the field, 9-of-14 from beyond the arc and went 10-for-15 at the foul line. Kelly and Robinson led Angelo State with 16 points apiece while Brea Mitchell finished with 12.

S&T returns to the court on Saturday evening taking on the host St. Mary's Rattlers in a 5:15 p.m. tip at Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio.