Lady Miners doomed by poor shooting, fall to UIndy

Tamara McCaskill

The Lady Miners managed to get a victory Thursday night in their Great Lakes Valley Conference opener despite struggling to put shots in the basket during the first half. UMR didn't get away with it again Saturday.

Indianapolis held the Lady Miners to 31.4 percent shooting on the afternoon and handed UMR its first loss in Great Lakes Valley Conference play by the score of 59-47 at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped UMR to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in GLVC play.

Despite making just seven of 23 from the field in the first half, the Lady Miners only found themselves down by two at the intermission at 27-25. UMR had a five-point lead early in the contest as Tamara McCaskill got off to a fast start, but the Lady Miners started to bog down after taking that 9-4 lead just over four minutes into play.

Josie Polk's three-point basket with 6:09 left in the half gave UMR at 16-15 lead, but the Greyhounds regained the lead on a basket by Amanda Norris and never trailed again. The score was tied at 21 late in the half before UIndy took the lead on a three-pointer by Karla Mast. UMR got the margin down to two right before the end of the half on a basket by Emily Petrea.

But the Greyhounds used an 20-4 run early in the second half to build a 16-point lead after the game was tied at 27. Tarryn Montgomery's three-point basket started the run, then Mandy Geryak connected three times from behind the arc during the course of the run to help UIndy build its largest lead of the game.

UMR tried to fight back and got the margin lowered to six on a three-pointer by McCaskill with 1:39 to go. However, that would be the last points UMR would score as the Greyhounds made their final six free throws for the 12-point final margin.

Geryak led all scorers in the game with 20 points, including four of the 'Hounds six three-point baskets. Meanwhile, the Lady Miners were only able to make 16 of 51 from the field and five of 17 from three-point land, with McCaskill finishing as the only player in double figures with 16 points.

UMR will return to action Thursday when it faces Rockhurst in a 5:30 p.m. game in Kansas City, Mo.