Lady Miners come alive in second half to win first GLVC road tilt
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| Tamara McCaskill |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A strong start to the second half and a big night on the boards helped the Lady Miners overcome a sluggish first 20 minutes as they bumped off Rockhurst 69-54 Thursday night at Mason-Halpin Field House.
UMR shot 53.1 percent (17-of-32) in the second half and outrebounded the Hawks 44-31 for the game as they won for the second time in Great Lakes Valley Conference play. It also got strong play from Tamara McCaskill, who led UMR with 19 points and Nicole Dierking who posted her second career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Lady Miners led by as many as nine, 20-11, in the opening half, but Rockhurst was able to claw back into the game even though it never took the lead. UMR led 29-26 at the intermission.
Rockhurst then grabbed its first – and only – lead at 32-31 just over two minutes into the second half on a basket by Erin Morrisey, but UMR got the advantage right back on a three-pointer by McCaskill. A steal by Jaime Forsberg led to a fast break lay-up by Dierking, then another bucket by McCaskill after a Rockhurst miss pushed the Lady Miner lead back to six at 38-32.
The scoring run went to nine straight points on a jumper in the lane by Chism McEntire before Rockhurst got back on the scoreboard on a driving lay-up by Kate Carr.
After the Hawks had trimmed the margin back to two, the Lady Miners rattled off seven straight points, including a three-point play by Dierking after Forsberg saved a ball from going out of bounds. Morrisey halted the run momentarily with a basket that was answered by a three-pointer at the other end by McEntire that gave UMR its biggest lead of 10 at 52-42.
The margin grew to 13 on another three-point basket, this one by Maggie Thompson. Rockhurst got back to within seven with over six minutes left on the clock, but another mini-run by the Lady Miners extended the lead to its largest point at 16 when Forsberg drained a shot from three-point range.
The Lady Miners (5-2, 2-1 GLVC) will face Drury Saturday in a 3:15 p.m. game in Springfield, Mo.