The Lady Miners entered Saturday's Senior Night game with Drury on a four-game winning streak and with high hopes of knocking off the Lady Panthers to draw closer to a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

However, the visitors had other ideas as they squelched those dreams right from the start, putting UMR in a big hole early and keeping them there as Drury beat the Lady Miners 75-64 at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

The loss dropped UMR into a tie for fourth with Quincy in the GLVC West Division with a pair of road games on the horizon, one of which is against Quincy to close the season next Saturday.

The Lady Miners never led in the contest. Drury scored the first five points on a jumper by Becky Flippin and a three-pointer by Molly Carter before UMR closed the score to 5-4 on buckets by Katie Bunge and Tamara McCaskill.

From that point, the Lady Panthers rattled off 10 straight points to go up 15-4 before Nicole Dierking's basket stopped that run -- but not the bleeding entirely. Chism McEntire's three-pointer drew UMR to within six at 15-9 before a 15-2 Drury run that concluded with a three-pointer by Hannah Carter gave the Lady Panthers a 30-11 lead with 6:19 to go in the half.

UMR got as close as 12 before halftime, the last point at 36-24 on a jumper by McCaskill with just over two minutes to go. The Lady Miners trailed by 16 at the intermission as they shot just 30 percent in the opening half.

The Lady Miners were able to convert on 53.6 percent of their shots in the second half, but despite the improved mark, couldn't make any significant headway into the Drury lead throughout most of the final 20 minutes. UMR had the margin down to 13 twice and to 14 on several another occasions, but couldn't get the lead any closer until the final minute.

The final difference of 11 points was as close as the Lady Miners got in the second half.

Two regular starters for the Lady Miners -- McCaskill and Bunge -- scored 11 and 10 points respectively to lead the way for UMR. Those two did not start the game as seniors Becca Kueny and Marta Tlalka got the nod in the Lady Miners' final home game of the season.

UMR (15-10, 8-9 GLVC) will play Southern Illinois Edwardsville Thursday night in Edwardsville, Ill., at 5:30 p.m.