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| Katie McElrath |
The Lady Miners got tougher on the defensive end and on the boards in the first half -- then let the offense finish the job after the intermission to claim a 69-52 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Thursday night over Wisconsin-Parkside at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
UMR ended a four-game losing streak by holding the Rangers to 38.8 percent shooting from the floor, including a 30.4 percent mark in the opening half to take a 26-21 lead into the locker room.
Then in the second half, the Lady Miners outscored UW-Parkside 21-8 over the first 7:21 to take an 18-point lead and never looked back.
UMR never trailed in the contest and took the lead for good on Nicole Dierking's basket 1:03 into play to take a 4-2 lead. The Lady Miners built their lead up to as many as eight on four different occasions in the first 20 minutes, the last at 19-11 on a basket by Katie McElrath.
The Lady Miners had the five-point lead at halftime and then made a 7-0 run early in the second half to take their first double figure lead of the contest. A free throw by Jaime Forsberg at the 16:30 mark gave UMR a 35-25 lead.
UMR took its biggest lead of the game at 18 on a give-and-go play from Katie Bunge to Nicole Dierking to make it 47-2 and had two other leads that reached the 18-point mark in the second half.
For the game, the Lady Miners shot 51.7 percent and were good on 61.3 percent (19-of-31) of their attempts in the second half. UMR also outrebounded the Rangers (11-5, 4-4 GLVC) by a 35-29 margin.
Bunge and Dierking led UMR with 12 points apiece, while Forsberg had 11 points and McElrath finished with 10. Becca Kueny had 10 rebounds to pace the Lady Miners, who gained their first win since prior to New Year's.
UW-Parkside's Ashley Ferguson led all scorers with 25 points.
UMR, 9-7 overall and 3-6 in GLVC play, will host No. 15-ranked Lewis Saturday at 1 p.m.
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