Lady Miners rebound from first loss to top Cameron

Jaime Forsberg

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Lady Miners used some strong three-point shooting in the second half to gain a split of their two games in the Premier Mortgage/WIBW Holiday Classic as they came away with a 67-62 victory over Cameron Saturday night at Washburn University.

UMR connected on six of their 13 three-point attempts in the second half and hit nine in the game as they overcame a tough overtime loss to Lynn on Friday evening to secure the win.

The Lady Miners (3-1) took the lead for good on a pair of free throws by Nicole Dierking with 3:16 to play as they held the Aggies without a field goal for the final 4:20 of the contest. That basket came from the Aggies' top offensive threat of the night, Chelsea Adams, as her bucket gave Cameron its last lead at 60-59. Dierking's two free throws came on the next posssesion and UMR never trailed again.

Dierking hit two more free tosses at the 2:42 mark to extend the lead to three, but UMR couldn't push the lead out any more until Katie McElrath made the second of two free throws with 1:22 to go. Cameron still trailed by just two at 64-62 with 36 seconds to go, but Jaime Forsberg made three-of-four at the free throw line in the last 30 seconds to secure the win.

A slow start put UMR in a 10-point hole in the first half at 21-11, but the Lady Miners chipped away at the lead and took a one-point lead at 29-28 when Katie Bunge hit a driving layup with just over a minute to go in the half. Cameron regained a 30-29 lead at halftime, but three successive three-point baskets early in the second half by Forsberg, Dierking and Chism McEntired gave UMR the lead at 38-35.

Forsberg hit two more three-pointers in the half, one at the 8:45 mark and another with 6:36 to play that gave UMR a 55-53 lead. The Lady Miners got a basket from Tamara McCaskill to go up by four before Cameron scored seven of the next nine points to take its last lead of the contest.

McCaskill and Forsberg led the Lady Miners with 16 points apiece while Dierking finished with 13. UMR made only 37 percent of its field goal attempts, but was 9-of-23 (39 percent) from three-point range and outrebounded the Aggies 39-38.

UMR held Cameron to 35 percent shooting in the game.

The Lady Miners will open Great Lakes Valley Conference play at home this week as they face Saint Joseph's in their league opener Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.