ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's basketball team began to pick up the pace late in the first half and took control of its home opener in the process, eventually coming away with an 84-53 victory over Principia on Wednesday evening.
S&T was slow out of the gate in terms of shooting the basketball and found itself tied with the Panthers (0-1) at 14 the end of the first quarter. The game remained close for nearly the first six minutes of the second quarter, but after
Katelynne Roberts (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) scored inside at the 4:11 mark, the Miners outscored Principia 15-5 for the remainder of the half to take an 11-point lead of 36-25 to the locker room.
The Miners (1-2) got a lot of production from Roberts during that second quarter surge, as she scored eight of her career-high 24 points during that stretch. After shooting just 31.4 percent in the first period, the Miners knocked down 53.3 percent of their shots in the second quarter and continued that into the second half as they made over 50 percent of their attempts over the final 20 minutes.
The Panthers were able to close the margin to seven early in the second half, but S&T started to assert itself from long range to rebuild its sizeable lead.
Gabi Burgess (Bloomingdale, IL/Lake Park),
Addyson Kent (North Vernon, IN/Jennings County) and
Eryn Puett (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) all connected on three-pointers on consecutive possessions to turn it back into a 12-point margin, as the Miners eventually built the lead back to 17 the end of the third period and then proceeded to outscore the Panthers 25-11 over the final 10 minutes.
Puett also reached a career scoring high in the game with 17 points as did freshman
Norah Gum (Waterloo, IL/Waterloo) as she ended up with 12. Kent contributed nine points as well as five assists and three steals. The Miners also outrebounded the Panthers 46-28 as Roberts led the way with nine.
Taylor Brown had 11 points to lead Principia.
The Miners will host Missouri Baptist on Saturday in a 1 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena.
