Tamara McCaskill

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Lady Miners were unable to overcome a sluggish first half and dropped their first game of the season Saturday afternoon, as Indianapolis knocked off UMR 64-57 at Nicoson Hall.

UMR was guilty of 10 turnovers and shot only 25 percent in the opening half and found themselves staring at a nine-point deficit at the break. The Lady Miners never led in the first half and had the game tied on two occasions, the last at 11 on a lay-in by Tamara McCaskill with 9:50 to go.

The Greyhounds followed by scoring the next eight points before Chism McEntire’s three-pointer halted the run at the 6:36 mark.

UIndy extended its lead to 12 late in the first half before a McCaskill three-pointer cut the margin to the halftime score of 27-18.

The Lady Miners started cutting into the lead early in the second half from long range, as three-pointers by McEntire and Katie McElrath allowed UMR to get to within four at 29-25 three minutes into the half. After the Greyhounds got the lead back to nine, a 6-0 UMR run capped by a fast break layup by Lauren Dubbert made it 34-31 at the 13:32 mark.

But every time the Lady Miners would draw closer, the Greyhounds got the ball in the hands of Karla Mast, who scored 22 of her game-high 29 points after the intermission.

The Greyhounds (5-0, 2-0 GLVC) hit three-pointers on three straight possessions – two by Mast – to build their lead back to nine at the five-minute mark. UMR got close again, trimming the lead to four on a putback by Katie Bunge at the 3:53 mark but UIndy was able to hold off the Lady Miners in the final minutes.

McCaskill led UMR with 16 points while Jaime Forsberg had 10, but the Lady Miners had 23 turnovers in the contest and shot only 37.7 percent from the floor.

UMR (3-1, 1-1 GLVC) will face Lincoln Thursday in a non-conference game in Jefferson City, Mo. Game time will be at 7 p.m.