The Lady Miners went through another tense moment at the end of a game Thursday, but this time, they made the defensive play to preserve a critical Great Lakes Valley Conference victory.
Leading by two after Lauren Dubbert missed the front end of a one-and-one with 11 seconds to go, Missouri S&T prevented Quincy's leading scorer, Jessica Keller, from getting a shot off and forced her to turn the ball over in the final seconds to hang on for a 75-73 victory over the Hawks at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
The win allowed the Lady Miners to gain a split of the season series with Quincy and extend their advantage to two games over the Hawks in the GLVC West Division with five games remaining in their quest to host a first round home game in the conference tournament.
The victory, however, didn't come easy by any means.
S&T had an eight-point lead of 33-25 after a basket by Lydia Karlefors with 3:33 left in the half, but the Hawks rattled off 14 straight points to take a six-point lead before Jennifer Pena's three-pointer with 19 seconds to go before the intermission brought the Hawk lead down to 39-36 at the half.
The Lady Miners finally got the lead back on a three-point play by Tamara McCaskill at the 13:53 mark and never trailed again after that, but had a tough time shaking the visitors who were able to stay within five points for the next 12 minutes.
Quincy forged four ties during that span, but the Lady Miners had an answer each time. Whintae Irby's baseline jumper with 6:08 to go tied the score at 63, but a short jumper by Katie Bunge put S&T back in front and a three-pointer by Dubbert moments later gave the Lady Miners their biggest lead since the first half at 68-63 with 4:45 left.
S&T was able to extend a three-point lead to six with 1:26 to go on a third chance basket which led to a three-point play by McCaskill. The Hawks closed to within four on a Megan Gavlick basket, then Katie McElrath hit the first of two at the line with 34 seconds to go to make it 75-70.
Alex Roznowski brought Quincy to within two by sinking a long three-pointer with 15 seconds to go, then the Hawks fouled Dubbert with 11 seconds to play. The junior guard missed the free throw, but the Lady Miners were able to bottle up Keller as she tried to find a path to the basket.
Keller tried to pass the ball out as time was running out, but her pass was intercepted by Pena to preserve the win.
S&T connected on 53.6 percent of its shots in the contest (30-of-56) and had four players in double figures, led by McCaskill with 19 points. Bunge finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double in the last seven games, while McElrath had 13 points and Pena finished with 12.
Keller and Janette Burgin had 17 points apiece for the Hawks, who scored 33 points off of 25 S&T turnovers. The Lady Miners, however, had a 38-33 advantage on the boards and held Quincy to 40.9 percent from the floor.
The Lady Miners (17-4, 11-3 GLVC) will host Southern Illinois Edwardsville Saturday at 1 p.m.; the team's five seniors will be honored prior to the start of Saturday's game.
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