The Lady Miners suffered just their fourth loss of the season Thursday night, but it certainly had to rank as the toughest of the four.

Leading by seven points with 24 seconds to go, Missouri S&T saw Drury erase the margin to send the game into overtime, then the Lady Panthers won the contest in the extra period by the score of 79-69 at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

A tough battle throughout the night between the top two teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division seemed to heading into the win column for the Lady Miners, as they had pushed their lead to seven with 24 ticks on the clock after Tamara McCaskill hit the first of two free throws.

However, a basket by Molly Carter and a second chance basket by Ja'Nell Jones off her own miss brought the Lady Panthers back to within three with five seconds remaining. Then, for the second time in the final seconds, the Lady Miners threw the ball away on a inbounds attempt, giving Drury a shot to tie the score.

Carter, who led all scorers in the contest with 30 points, drained a three-pointer from the top of the key with three seconds to go to tie the game at 63 and put all the momentum on the Lady Panthers' side.

After Carter put Drury in front 1:39 into overtime, S&T's Katie Bunge tied the score by hitting a layup. The Lady Miners drew even again at 69 after Jaime Forsberg hit two free throws with 1:42 to go, but Carter scored again on Drury's next trip down the floor to start a game-ending 10-0 run for the win.

Drury had a 27-23 lead at halftime despite being held to 37 percent shooting by the Lady Miners, but 15 Lady Miner turnovers put them in the deficit.

S&T was able to take its first lead of the second half at the 12:03 mark after McCaskill hit a pair at the line, then the teams swapped the lead for the next three minutes. Katie McElrath's three-point play at the 9:06 mark put S&T up 40-38, then after Drury drew even at 42 and again at 44, the Lady Miners moved ahead again on a basket by Katie Bunge with 5:33 remaining.

Chism McEntire's two free throws with 32 seconds left gave S&T a 62-53 lead, but Carter hit a three at the other end five seconds later to cut the margin to six. McCaskill was fouled moments later and made the first of two at the line, setting the stage for Drury's comeback.

McElrath finished with a career-high 24 points to lead the Lady Miners, who hit 46.4 percent of their shots but turned the ball over 33 times in the contest to Drury's 21. S&T also got 16 points from McCaskill and 10 from Bunge as it dropped back-to-back games for the first time since early last January.

The Lady Miners (15-4, 9-3 GLVC), who maintained a one-game lead for second place after losses Thursday by Quincy and SIU Edwardsville, will host Rockhurst Satutrday at 1 p.m. on Fort Leonard Wood Appreciation Day at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. Saturday's game will be sponsored by Forum Dental.