Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners held off a late rally by LeMoyne-Owen College to win its season opener 93-84 on Friday evening at Billy Key Court in Rolla, Mo. The win was the 16^th consecutive in a season opener for S&T. Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) scored a career-high 31 points to lead four Lady Miners in double figures.

S&T (1-0) shot 65 percent from the floor in the opening quarter and led 27-21 at the end of the frame. The Lady Miners trailed 4-2 but used a 7-1 run to build an 11-5 lead with 6:25 left in the stanza. The lead grew to as many as eight points late in the quarter but the Magicians (0-1) used a 7-0 run to trim the lead to one with 1:13 left in the quarter. Arand and Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) each hit three-pointers in the final minute to push the lead back to six.

S&T outscored LOC 15-11 over the first seven-plus minutes of the second quarter to build its largest lead of the half at 42-32 after a layup by Marta Durk (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon Township). The Magicians then finished the half scoring the final 10 points to send the teams into the locker room tied at 42 in the half.

The Lady Miners shot 56 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes but LeMoyne-Owen shot 53 percent from the floor.

S&T started the third quarter strong outscoring the Magicians 11-0 in the first four minutes. The Magicians cut the lead to 59-54 after an old fashioned three-point play by Ty Broadwater with 2:41 left in the quarter. The Lady Miners responded by scoring 10 of the final 15 points in the stanza to push its lead back to double digits.

S&T stretched its lead to as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter but a 17-7 run from LeMoyne-Owen cut the lead to 82-78 with 3:39 left in the game. It was only a six point game with 92 seconds left when Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) blew by the defense down the left side of the lane and scored to extend the lead to 90-82. Tenesha Wright answered on the other end with a layup but the Lady Miners hit three of their last four attempts at the foul line to seal the win.

S&T finished the game shooting 58 percent (36-for-62) from the floor, went 7-of-18 from three but shot only 52 percent (14-for-27) at the foul line. Joining Arand in double figures were Michelle Borgen (Tinley Park, Illinois/Andrew) with 19 points, Kabetske added 11 and Raley finished with 10. Kim Runge (Freedom, Wis./Freedom) grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds while Borgen, Kabetske and Raley added three assists each.

The Magicians shot 47 percent (28-for-60) from the field, 5-of-16 from downtown and were 23-for-35 at the foul line. Wright led LOC with 25 points while Dana Gettis added 22 and Broadwater finished with 12. Wright also grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Lady Miners return to the court on Saturday hosting Purdue Northwest in the final game of the Lady Miner Classic at 6 p.m.