Chism McEntire

After a number of recent contests with nail-biting finishes -- the most recent being two nights earlier -- the Lady Miners took the drama out of Saturday's game in the first ten minutes of the second half.

That was just fine with MIssouri S&T women's basketball coach Alan Eads.

Leading by eight at halftime, the Lady Miners outscored Southern Illinois Edwardsville 22-2 to start the second half to bust the game wide open and cruised to a 72-48 Great Lakes Valley Conference win on Senior Day at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

S&T held SIUE to just one field goal in the first 10:27 of the half, turning a 28-20 halftime lead into a 50-22 rout. Meanwhile, the Lady Miners connected on 66.7 percent of their shots after the break, including four three-pointers and finished the game at 54.4 percent.

The Cougars had one lead in the game -- a 15-13 advantage after Amber Shelton hit a three-pointer with 8:54 left in the first half -- but the Lady Miners came right back and got the lead for good on a lay-in by Katie Bunge at the 7:21 mark and built the margin to as much as nine in the opening half.

Chism McEntire hit a driving layup 14 seconds into the second half, setting the tone for the next ten minutes of play as the Lady Miners shut down the Cougars and began building the lead, with the run concluding on two free throws by McEntire at the 9:46 mark.

Tamara McCaskill and Katie McElrath had six points apiece during the course of the run and finished the day as the Lady Miners' top scorers with 20 and 10 points, respectively; McElrath also had 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.

The Lady Miners had good balance in the scoring column as Sheena Chadwell had eight points and McEntire and Josie Polk finished with seven apiece. Defensively, the Lady Miners held SIUE to 27.5 percent shooting for the day and held Shelton, the GLVC's top scorer, to 16 points and just two in the second half.

S&T (18-4, 12-3 GLVC) stayed one game behind Drury in the GLVC West Division and two games ahead of Quincy. The Lady Miners will return to the floor Thursday with a 5:30 p.m. game against Rockhurst in Kansas City.