Springfield, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners closed out the 2016 calendar year with a 95-75 loss to the 14^th ranked Drury Lady Panthers at the O'Reilly Family Events Center in Springfield, Mo., on Saturday afternoon. S&T (6-5, 1-2 GLVC) couldn't overcome 29 turnovers and the hot shooting of Drury's (11-2, 3-0 GLVC) Paige Wilson who hit five three-pointers in the first half.

The Lady Miners trailed by eight early but were able to trim the deficit to 14-11 behind five quick points from Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ). Wilson countered with back-to-back three's to extend the Lady Panther lead to nine but S&T hung around with a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 21-17 on a jumper by Sandra Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) with 1:14 left in the first quarter. That would be the closest the Lady Miners got as Hannah Dressler hit a layup and Wilson added her fourth three of the quarter to give Drury a nine-point lead at the quarter break.

S&T got back-to-back buckets from Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled) to open the second quarter to cut the lead to five and had a chance to get closer but committed back-to-back turnovers and the Lady Panthers capitalized as Heather Harman hit a three-pointer and Dejah Bernard added a layup to extend the lead back to 10. After a free throw by Aricca Daye (Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines East) cut the lead to 31-22 with 7:45 left in the second quarter Drury responded with a 13-6 run over the next four minutes to push the lead to 44-26 and eventually led by as many as 20 points in the opening half but the Lady Miners scored the final five points to cut the lead to 16 at the intermission.

S&T shot the ball at a 57 percent (13-for-23) clip in the opening but turned the ball over 16 times resulting in 18 points for the Lady Panthers. The Lady Miners held a 15-13 edge on the glass and were led in scoring by Katey Brown (Craig, Neb./Guardian Angels Central Catholic) with eight points while Gray added seven.

Drury made 19 of 36 (53 percent) of its shots in the first half and was 8-for-15 from the three-point line. Wilson led all scorers with 15 points while Brianna Jones added nine off the bench.
S&T opened the third quarter on a 9-3 run to cut the halftime deficit to just 10 points getting four points from Brown and three from Gray. The Lady Panthers countered with an 11-4 run in a three minute stretch to regain control of the contest. They would stretch its lead to as many as 22 points after a pair of free throws from Hannah Dressler but the Lady Miners wouldn't go away as Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) hit a layup and Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) hit a three-pointer from the right corner to close out the third quarter.

S&T cut the lead to 14 points early in the fourth quarter but were unable to get any closer than that as the Lady Panthers answered with an 8-2 pushing its lead back to 20 points. The Lady Miners cut the deficit to 82-67 but Drury was just too much down the stretch outscoring S&T 13-8 the rest of the way.

The Lady Miners shot the ball extremely well shooting 56 percent (27-for-48) from the field, hit 7-of-11 from the three-point line and was 14-for-18 at the foul line. They outrebounded the Lady Panthers 31-27 but were outscored 30-8 in points off turnovers. Gray led S&T with 18 points while Brown added 12 and Raley chipped in with 11 off the bench.

Drury hit 52 percent (33-of-64) of its shots from the floor, was 11-for-23 from downtown and was 18-for-27 at the foul line. Hailey Diestelkamp led five Lady Panthers in double figures with 16 points. Wilson and Heather Harman added 15 each, Dressler chipped in with 13 and Brianna Jones added 12 off the bench.

The Lady Miners return home this coming Thursday to take on the Flyers from Lewis University in a 5:30 p.m. contest at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.