The Lady Miners erased a 14-point deficit to take a lead against Lewis Saturday afternoon at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building, but the 15th-ranked Flyers had an answer to that to get out of town with a victory.
After UMR had taken a 77-76 lead with just over four minutes to play, the Flyers scored the final 15 points of the game and took a 91-77 victory to prevent the Lady Miners from gaining any ground in the GLVC playoff race.
UMR trailed 58-44 after a basket by Darcee Schmidt with 15:47 to play and still trailed by nine at the 12:02 mark after another basket by the game's leading scorer. But thanks to some strong inside play by Katie Bunge and Tamara McCaskill and the three-point shooting of Chism McEntire, UMR started knocking the margin down and finally passed the Flyers on a three by McEntire with 7:21 to go to give the Lady Miners their first lead since the 6:08 mark in the first half.
Lewis regained a three-point lead at the free throw line before UMR got its final lead of the contest on back-to-back baskets by Maggie Thompson, the latter one a foul line jumper that gave UMR a 77-76 lead with 4:17 to go.
Jenna Mooberry drove the baseline for a layup on Lewis' next trip down the floor to get the advantage back for Lewis, then the Lady Miners went ice cold on the offensive end. UMR missed its final eight shots as the Flyers (15-2, 8-1 GLVC) were able to pull away for their ninth straight win.
The first half was a scoring battle between UMR's Nicole Dierking and the Lewis' triumvirate of Schmidt, Mary Moskal and Kelly Dianis. Dierking, who had 21 points in the second half of UMR's win over the Flyers in the GLVC Tournament last March, scored 18 in the first half and hit all five of her three-point attempts.
But on the other side, Dianis was four-of-six from three-point range and had 16 points, while Schmidt and Moskal combined for 21 more. Lewis finished the half by shooting 65.4 percent from the floor and outscored UMR 19-7 over the final 5:27 of the half to build a 49-38 halftime lead.
Schmidt finished with 30 points in the game and Moskal added 20 to lead the Flyers. Despite not scoring in the second half -- in part because of foul trouble -- Dierking still led UMR for the day with her 18 points. McCaskill finished the day with 16 and Bunge with 14.
UMR will host Lindenwood in a non-conference contest Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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