ROLLA, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners hit nine of its first 16 shots to begin the contest, but made only 10 of its final 36 attempts in its 53-48 loss to Rockhurst on Thursday evening. The Hawks didn't shoot the ball much better making just 33.3 percent of their attempts and outrebounded S&T 43-36 including 16-6 on the offensive glass.

The Lady Miners (6-18, 2-14 GLVC) got out of the gates quickly building a 6-2 lead 84 seconds into the contest. Rockhurst (11-13, 5-11 GLVC) answered with a 13-6 run over the next 6:30 minutes to build its largest lead of the half at 15-12 on a layup be Becca Strobbe.

S&T regained the lead thanks to a 10-0 sparked by Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled)'s play off the bench as she hit back-to-back shots to put the Lady Miners back in front. Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) continued the run with a three and Brittany Andersen (Saint John, Ind./Andrean ) capped the run with another three to make it a seven-point advantage.

From that point S&T went cold missing its final six shots of the stanza as the Hawks closed the half on a 9-3 spurt to cut the deficit to 25-24 at the break. The Lady Miners final three points of the half came at the foul line.

S&T shot 41 percent (9-for-22) from the floor, made two of its three attempts beyond the arc and shot 83 percent at the foul line. It turned the ball over 12 times resulting in 11 points for Rockhurst. Andersen led the Lady Miners with nine points while Arand added seven.

The Hawks were just 11-of-40 (28 percent) from the field, they connected on only two of their 11 attempts from long range and missed their only free throw. Lauren Meyers led Rockhurst with nine points while Strobbe dropped in five.

The two sides swapped baskets for the first nine minutes of the second half resulting in seven lead changes. Jill Meyers put Rockhurst in front for good with a floater in the lane at the 11:26 mark.

The Hawks stretched their lead to six after a layup by Kendall Hart, but the Lady Miners got buckets from Arand and Andersen to trim the margin back to two with 5:42 to play. That would be the closest S&T got as Meyers got behind the Lady Miner defense on the ensuing possession for a layup and was fouled on the play. She converted the old-fashioned three-point play to extend the margin five.

Laura Wilson made it a seven-point ball game scoring on a put-back at the 4:30 mark. The Lady Miners tried to muster a late rally as Leigh-Ann Kesper (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) made 1-of-2 at the line and Elsie Greenwood (Breckenridge, Mo./Penney High School) hit a three-pointer to make it a three-point game with 75 seconds to go.

S&T got a stop on its next possession, but turned it over with 0:28 to play. Meyers salted the game away for Rockhurst going 4-for-4 at the foul line in the final 0:25. Sandra Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) hit a jumper at the buzzer for the final tally.

The Lady Miners shot only 33.3 percent in the second half to finish the game 19-for-52 (36.5 percent), they were 4-of-11 from beyond the arc and 6-for-8 at the foul line. Andersen led S&T with 11 points while Arand and Greenwood added nine points each. Kesper finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Lady Miners had no answer in the second half for Meyers as she finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting, hit her only three-pointer and was 5-for-5 at the foul line. She led all scorers with 23 points. The Hawks finished the game going 22-for-66, from the floor while shooting 19.0 percent from the three-point line and were 5-for-8 at the charity stripe.

S&T closes out the home portion of its schedule on Saturday afternoon hosting William Jewell at 1 p.m. Saturday's game will be Senior Day and also Fort Leonard Wood Appreciation Day. William Jewell suffered an 88-62 loss at 11^th ranked Drury on Thursday evening.