Lady Miners secure key GLVC road win in Wisconsin

Chism McEntire

KENOSHA, Wis. -- Once the Lady Miners finally got Kayla Ming under control, they took command of the game themselves and picked up a key Great Lakes Valley Conference road victory Thursday with a 65-56 win at Wisconsin-Parkside.

The victory keeps Missouri S&T (11-2, 5-1 GLVC) in first place in the GLVC West Division and extended its winning streak to six games heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. tilt against Lewis in Romeoville, Ill.

The Lady Miners opened the game by making seven of their first 11 shots to take a 16-8 lead at the 12:54 mark. However, the Rangers scored 13 unanswered points after S&T took that eight-point lead, moving ahead 21-16 before Jaime Forsberg's driving layup stopped the run almost seven minutes after S&T had last scored.

The Lady Miners gor the lead back late in the half on a basket by Katie McElrath, but the Rangers ended the half with a 29-26 lead after scoring the final four points before the intermission.

After Chism McEntire tied the game at 29 with a three-pointer, Ming scored six consecutive points on a three and a conventional three-point play to give the Rangers their biggest lead of the game. At that point, Ming, who entered the game as the conference's fourth-leading scorer, had scored a game-high 19 points.

With the score at 37-31, the Lady Miners answered with a 13-2 run, moving back in front 38-37 at the 13:52 mark on two free throws by Tamara McCaskill.

S&T missed several chances to extend its five-point lead, but after two Mackenzie Heise free throws made it 46-43, Lauren Dubbert knocked down a three-pointer with 4:19 to go to give the Lady Miners their biggest lead since early in the contest.

Nearly two minutes later, McCaskill hit an open McElrath for a layup that pushed S&T's lead to seven at 55-48.

UW-Parkside had a chance to draw closer in the final minute after a turnover by Jaime Forsberg, but Heise was called for a charging foul which then drew a technical foul from the Ranger bench. McEntire drained all four free throws with 38.5 seconds left to extend the S&T lead to eight.

McCaskill led the Lady Miners with 17 points while McEntire finished with 15, 10 of which came at the free throw in the final 38 seconds. S&T also had McElrath in double figures with 12 points and Katie Bunge with 11. Ming led all scorers in the game with 21 points, but had only two in the final 15 minutes.