Nicole Dierking

It was only fitting that with a sizeable group in the stands -- whose job it is to defend the country -- that the Lady Miners would take the cue and use defense to pick up a key Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Saturday afternoon.

UMR held Missouri-St. Louis to 51 points on the day and came away with a 66-51 win over the Riverwomen on Fort Leonard Wood Appreciation Day at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. It got the win with its defense, forcing UMSL into 20 turnovers, allowing just four offensive rebounds and scoring 24 points off the UMSL mistakes.

After allowing an early basket to Jennifer Martin, UMR scored 11 of the next 13 points and took an 11-4 lead on a jumper by Tamara McCaskill at the 13:34 mark. The Lady Miners maintained a lead around the double figure mark for the rest of the half and held a seven-point lead of 29-22 at the intermission despite shooting just 33 percent in the first half.

UMR got its lead back into double figures again on a three-point basket by Chism McEntire with 14:26 to go, but the Riverwomen made a 9-2 run to get the margin down to five again. UMSL trailed 47-42 with just under eight minutes to go, but a jumper from the corner by Nicole Dierking got the lead back out to seven again.

From that point, the Lady Miners were able to keep the lead at a comfortable margin and then pulled away for their biggest lead of the day in the final minutes. Leading 56-48, UMR scored 10 straight points, including the last seven as the direct result of UMSL turnovers.

Four of UMR's five starters finished in double figures with Dierking leading the way with 15 points to go along with 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. McCaskill had 13 points, while McEntire finished with 12 and Katie Bunge with 10. The only starter that didn't reach double figures was Jaime Forsberg, but she had a good stat line with eight points, three assists and five steals.

UMSL (5-12, 1-9 GLVC) was led by Martin with 14 points as she was the only Riverwoman in double figures.

The Lady Miners (11-8, 4-7 GLVC) head to the road for their next three contests, starting Thursday at Kentucky Wesleyan.