Springfield, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season 88-60 on Friday evening at the Ramada Oasis Convention Center/Drury Thanksgiving Classic in Springfield, Mo. Union finished the game hitting 19 three's in the contest and outscored the Lady Miners 50-28 in the second half.

S&T (4-1) hit three of its first four shots to begin the game and held a 7-2 with 7:48 to go in the opening quarter but then the Lady Bulldogs (5-0) caught fire with a 23-2 run which spanned more than five minutes to take a 25-9 lead. Union hit five three's in that run and was paced by its leading scorer Chelsey Shumpert who had eight points in the run.

The Lady Miners were able to cut the deficit to 13 by the end of the opening quarter and then in the second quarter shot 53 percent (8-for-15) from the field while holding the Lady Bulldogs to just 21 percent shooting. S&T cut the deficit to just six points at the intermission on a jumper by Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) but missed an opportunity to get closer missing four free throws in the final 3:25 of the half.

Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) led the Lady Miners with 11 points in the opening half while Raley dropped in 10. Marta Durk (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon Township) and Ashley Harvey (Raytown, Mo./Raytown) added three points each off the bench. S&T was outrebounded 24-23 in the first two quarters.

Shumpert led all scorers with 12 points in the first 20 minutes. Anna Lea Little added nine points and Jada Perkins dropped in eight.  

Union came out firing in the third quarter quickly extending its lead back to double digits scoring the first seven points of the frame. S&T was able to cut the deficit to 12 after a pair of free throws from Kristin Steins (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South) but the Lady Bulldogs scored the final six points of the quarter to build its largest of the lead game at 66-48. Union shot 61 percent in the third quarter and hit six three's in the stanza.


The Lady Bulldogs continued their hot shooting in the final quarter shooting 62 percent from the floor and added another five three's as they extended their lead to 31 points. The Lady Miners struggled to get anything going offensively in the final 10 minutes as they were held to just 12 points.

Arand and Raley had 18 points each to lead S&T while Ashley Harvey (Raytown, Mo./Raytown) added six. The Lady Miners shot just 39 percent from the floor in the game and were held to 6 of 19 shooting from three. S&T finished the game outrebounding Union 41-39 but were outscored 21-7 in points off turnovers.

Perkins led four Union players in double figures with a game-high 24 points. Shumpert added 20 points, Little dropped in 17 and Tiffany Rechis finished with 12. The Lady Bulldogs finished the game shooting 46 percent from the floor and went 19-for-42 from beyond the arc.

The Lady Miners look to bounce back on Saturday when they take on Arkansas-Fort Smith at 7:45 p.m. at the O'Reilly Family Events Center.