ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's late comeback effort from a double-digit deficit came up short Saturday afternoon, as Missouri Baptist held on to beat the Miners 77-72 in their women's basketball contest at Gibson Arena.
The Miners trailed by 12 with 2:01 to play, but got the lead down to three when
Bonnie Lew Ludlow (Indianapolis, IN/Covenant Christian) drained a three-pointer with 16 seconds remaining. After Missouri Baptist's Deyana Dodd missed two free throws to keep the door open for S&T, the Miners committed a turnover before they could get a potential game-tying shot away and Dodd sank two free throws to seal the victory for MBU (1-2) and drop S&T to 1-3 on the season.
S&T had a slow start out of the gate Saturday, going scoreless for nearly six minutes in the first period which allowed the Spartans to take an 18-6 lead.
Katelynne Roberts (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) ended the scoreless stretch with a conventional three-point play as S&T scored the final five points of the quarter to cut the margin to seven.
The Miners took their first lead since the early stages of the game when Ludlow scored off an assist from
Addison Hopkins (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) to go up 23-22 midway through the second quarter, but they lost the lead a short time later and never held the advantage again. Ludlow – who scored a career-high 23 points on the afternoon – hit a three to tie the game at 26, but the Spartans closed the half by outscoring S&T 7-2 to take a 33-28 lead to the break.
After the Miners cut that lead to two on a
Chorus Davis (Kansas City, MO/Lincoln College Prep) three-pointer early in the second half, the Spartans went on a 11-4 surge to get their lead back into double figures again. S&T got the lead back down to six before the third quarter ended, then got another three-pointer from Davis and a steal and basket from Hopkins to knock the margin down to a point with 8:14 to go.
However, MBU rattled off eight of the next nine points and after another mini surge by the Miners that got the lead down to five, the Spartans made a 9-2 run to go up 70-58 with 2:01 left.
S&T quickly got the lead down to seven on a put-back by
Gabi Burgess (Bloomingdale, IL/Lake Park) and a steal and three-pointer by
Addyson Kent (North Vernon, IN/Jennings County), then Roberts made one-of-two at the line and had another three-point play on the next Miner possession to trim the margin to four.
Roberts also had 23 points to share the top scoring honors Saturday with Ludlow, while Kent also reached double figures with 10 points. The Miners shot 41.7 percent from the field, shooting better than 40 percent in each of the final three quarters to overcome a two-of-10 start in the contest.
The Spartans, who were led by T'Laizha Morris with 22 points, outrebounded S&T 41-34 and shot 46.6 percent from the floor.
Missouri S&T will open its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule next Saturday when it hosts Missouri-St. Louis at 1 p.m. at Gibson Arena.
