Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners made a valiant effort but couldn't overcome a slow start falling to fourth ranked Drury
69-58 at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building on Saturday. S&T (4-4, 1-2 GLVC) shot just 25 percent in the opening frame while the Lady Panthers (8-0, 3-0 GLVC) connected on 53 percent of their attempts in the first 10 minutes.
Drury opened the scoring on an Annie Armstrong three-pointer 0:29 into the contest and never relinquished the lead.
Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) got the Lady Miners on the board with a jumper at the 8:44 mark, but the Lady Panthers went on a 13-4 run to over the next 6:30 to build a 10-point cushion on a layup by Heather Harman.
Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ) brought S&T to within 16-9 on a three-pointer before Drury pushed the advantage to 11 at the quarter break scoring the final four points of the frame.
The Lady Panthers extended their lead to 14 points with 3:15 left in the half, but the Lady Miners scored 8 of the final 12 points of the stanza to cut the deficit to 42-32 at the break. S&T shot a blistering 69 percent in the second quarter and was 5-of-6 at the foul line while Drury shot just 44 percent from the floor and hit two of its four attempts from three.
After its slow start to begin the game the Lady Miners finished the half making 45 percent of their attempts from the floor but the difference was they were 1-of-7 from behind the arc while the Lady Panthers connected on 4-of-11 attempts.
Gray led S&T with seven points in the half while
Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled) added six off the bench and
Bria Pierce (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley North) added five.
Alice Heinzler led Drury with 12 points in the first 20 minutes and Armstrong chipped in with eight. The Lady Panthers were 16-for-33 (48.5 percent) from the field in the first half.
Drury opened the third quarter on an 11-2 run to extend its lead to 19 nearly three minutes into the period. The Lady Miners began to chip away at the lead cutting it to 56-44 after an old fashioned three-point play by Pierce exactly two minutes later.
The Lady Panthers responded to that run with a 9-1 spurt over the next six minutes to build its largest lead of the game at 65-45 0:10 into the fourth quarter on a pair of free throws by Heinzler.
S&T locked down defensively after those free throws holding Drury scoreless for the next 9:09. That stretch allowed the Lady Miners to go a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 65-58 with 2:23 to play.
They had a chance to cut into the lead even more but turned the ball over in transition after a Lady Panther miss with less than two minutes to go. S&T had another chance later but missed a layup and two free throws with 69 remaining.
Armstrong sealed the win for Drury scoring the final four points of the contest to pick up the win. The Lady Panthers shot only 10 percent in the final quarter but were 4-of-4 at the foul line.
S&T finished the game outshooting their guests 43.1-to-41.0 percent but it was unable to overcome the three-point shooting of the Lady Panthers. The Lady Miners outrebounded Drury 34-to-32 in the contest. Gray led S&T with 14 points while Pierce added 13.
Armstrong and Heinzler combined to score nearly half of the Lady Panthers points in the contest. Drury entered the contest as the Division II leader in three-point field goal percentage at 48.5 percent and finished the contest knocking down 8-of-19 attempts (42.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
The Lady Miners conclude their three-game homestand next Sun., Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. against Harris-Stowe.
