ROLLA, MO- Looking to take their momentum from last week's GLVC win over Quincy, the Miners hosted the Bearcats of Southwest Baptist for their first game of the New Year. While S&T had as much as a 15 point lead, SBU came back strong in the second half to hand the Miners the 85-78 loss.

The Miners opened up play with a 6-0 lead after lay-ups from Alex Kerr (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) and Marta Durk (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon Township). While the Bearcats tried to make a run at the Miners, S&T's hot shooting helped the to take a 22-11 lead after one quarter after Laura Rodriguez (Gran Canaria, Spain/Baloncesto Torrelodones) drained one of her three 3-point buckets to end the opening stanza.

SBU made a run late in the second quarter to get within five of S&T.

A ten-point swing that was capped off by a three-point play by the Bearcats Kyleigh Vaught put the Miners up 37-32 with less than a minute remaining in the first half. Two free-throws from Katey Brown (Craig, Neb./West Point Central Catholic) at the last second put S&T up 39-32 heading into the half.

The third quarter saw five ties and two lead changes as both teams struggled to gain control of the game. While the Miners and Bearcats traded baskets throughout the quarter, Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) put S&T up at the end of the 10 minutes after a lay-up at the buzzer gave them a 62-60 lead.

In a race to the final buzzer, S&T and SBU battled it out in the final quarter.

Southwest Baptist regained their lead with 4:31 left in the game after a three-pointer from Sydney Bandy. S&T would be held to just five points for the remainder of the game while SBU went on to sink nine free-throws to hand the Miners the 85-78 loss.

Missouri S&T (6-7, 2-4 GLVC) shot 47% from the field and 50% from long range. They got a big push in the paint tonight, getting 44 of their 78 points in the lane.

Laura Rodriguez (Gran Canaria, Spain/Baloncesto Torrelodones) led the way for the Miners scoring, going 6-10 from the field and 3-4 from three-point range for 16 points while sophomore center Alex Kerr (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) added in 15 points. Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) and Mykala Baylor (South Bend, Ind./Clay) also hit double-digit scoring tonight with 11 points each while Baylor picked up her 10^th double-double (points-rebounds) of the season with 10 rebounds.