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| Katie Bunge |
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Lady Miners' furious comeback effort Saturday fell short, as Drury held off Missouri S&T's rally from a 19-point halftime deficit to come away with a 89-75 win in Weiser Gym.
The loss all but relegates S&T to playing for the second seed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference’s West Division, as it sits a game and a half behind the Lady Panthers with two games to go. Drury will wrap up the top seed from the GLVC West with a victory Sunday over Missouri-St. Louis based on its sweep of S&T this season.
S&T, which still holds a one-game lead over Quincy in the division for second, can lock up the No. 2 seed with wins over UMSL and Southern Indiana next week. The Lady Miners will host UMSL Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
The Lady Miners never led in the contest, but were within one at 8-7 after a three-pointer by Jaime Forsberg at the 15:51 mark. Drury ran off nine straight points to extend its lead to 10 before Lauren Dubbert’s three-pointer ended a three-minute scoring drought for S&T.
However, the Lady Miners turned the ball over 12 times in the opening half and Drury shot 50 percent from the floor to eventually take a 51-32 lead into the intermission.
S&T was able to close the margin down to 13 in the early part of the second half, then got it down to single digits when Sheena Chadwell connected on a pair of free throws at the 13:43 mark.
Drury extended its lead back to 12 before the Lady Miners started chipping away again, drawing to within three on a three-pointer by Chism McEntire with 7:28 to play. Moments later, McEntire had a chance to tie the game but was off the mark on a three, then Drury got the lead back to nine over the next two minutes.
The Lady Miners were able to get the lead down to six three different times after that, but a technical foul on S&T allowed Drury to get the lead back to 10 with just over two minutes to go.
Katie Bunge led the Lady Miners with 20 points and was one of four S&T players in double figures. Tamara McCaskill and Dubbert had 12 points apiece, while McEntire added 10. The Lady Miners shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the second half and finished the game at 52.2 percent, their fourth straight game with a shooting percentage of at least 50 percent.
Molly Carter, who had 30 points in the first meeting between the teams that Drury won in overtime, matched that total to lead all scorers Saturday.
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