ROLLA, Mo. - The Missouri S&T women's basketball team returned to Gibson Arena Thursday evening and suffered an 86-63 defeat at the hands of Truman State.
The Miners (10-8, 6-4 GLVC) trailed by three after the first quarter and at halftime, but got outscored 47-27 in the second half.
For the first three and a half minutes of the game, the Miners and Bulldogs exchanged baskets until TSU started a 6-0 run after back-to-back three-point baskets from Hannah Belanger and Alex Fanning that gave Truman an 8-4 lead. At the 3:34 mark,
Anna Finley (Owensville, MO/Owensville) netted a three-point basket to cut the deficit to three as TSU and S&T would exchange three-point baskets for nearly the next two minutes as S&T would close the period trailing 20-17.
At the eight-minute mark in the second quarter,
Alex Kerr (St. Louis, MO/St. Joseph's Academy) cut the deficit to one after her hook shot in the paint. Then at the 5:48 mark, Finley started S&T's biggest scoring run of the night of six after a pair of free-throws found the bottom of the net and
Laura Rodriguez (Gran Canaria, Spain/Baloncesto Torrelodones) tied the game on the next S&T possession with a driving layup. S&T took the lead on its next trip down the floor on another basket by Kerr in the paint, but Truman responded with a 5-0 run after a three-point basket by Ellie Weltha and a fast break layup by Hannah Pinkston to retake the lead. Truman held a 39-36 lead at the break.
The Bulldogs opened the second half on a 9-0 run, largely on the scoring of Belanger as she scored 11 of her game-high 32 points in the period. Belanger started that run with a three-point basket and hit another three to begin another 10-0 spurt by the Bulldogs that was halted with 48 seconds to go in the quarter after a
Michaela Davis (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk) jump shot. Truman would outscore the Miners 20-10 in the quarter to take a 59-46 lead into the fourth quarter, then had another 8-0 scoring run to put S&T into a deficit it couldn't recover from.
Three Miners finished in double figures, led by Kerr with 14 points while hauling down a team-high six rebounds. Finley contributed 11 points while shooting three-of-four from behind the arc and
Michaela Davis (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk) added 10 while dishing out a team-high three assists. As a team, S&T scored 10 points on turnovers while outscoring the Bulldogs 30-26 in the paint.
The Bulldogs (13-5, 9-1 GLVC) were led in scoring by Belanger with 32 points as she made six three-point baskets, while Weltha added 16 points and Gracie Stugart added a team-high eight assists. Truman State shot 51.8 percent from the field and shooting 46.4 percent from behind the arc while out rebounding S&T 35-30.
"We played a strong first half defensively, but lost our defensive focus in the second half," said S&T head coach
Kira Carter following the contest.
The Miners will travel to Quincy this Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. to continue Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
