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| Katie McElrath |
QUINCY, Ill. -- After coming from behind to take a 10-point lead in the second half, the Missouri S&T women’s basketball team went cold and opened the door for Quincy to rally for a 74-70 victory Saturday night.
The loss ended S&T’s 10-game winning streak and dropped the Lady Miners into a tie for first place in the GLVC West Division with Drury, which beat Kentucky Wesleyan 75-72 earlier in the day. Missouri S&T and seventh-ranked Drury will face off for the first time this season Thursday in a 5:30 p.m. game at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
After QU’s Alex Roznowski hit a three-pointer to tie the game with 56 seconds to go, the Lady Miners missed a shot to take the lead and Belle, Mo., native Jessica Keller hit four free throws -- with a key steal in the middle of the sequence -- to put the Hawks ahead to stay.
In the early stages it appeared that neither team was going to miss, as the Lady Miners and Hawks traded baskets for about a three-minute stretch. After the Lady Miners tied the score at 16 on a basket by Katie Bunge, the Hawks went up for good in the first half on Roznowski’s three-pointer at the 12:55 mark.
Quincy took a 41-37 lead into the locker room although the Lady Miners held them to 34.1 percent shooting.
The Hawks led 50-47 when Jaime Forsberg made a steal and lay-in to cut the lead to one. Although she missed the ensuing free throw as she was fouled going in for the layup, the Lady Miners were able to get their first second half lead at 51-50 on a basket by Bunge with 13:02 to go.
The run that started with the Forsberg basket reached 11 points before Keller hit the second of two free throws to make it 58-51.
Forsberg’s three-pointer at the 7:06 mark gave S&T its biggest lead of the night of 63-53 before the Hawks scored nine straight points to cut the lead to one. However, after Keller hit a three to make it 63-62, McCaskill drained a three out of the corner with 4:21 remaining to push the lead back to four.
With the lead at 66-65, Bunge went up strong for a layin with 1:06 to go to get the lead back to three, but Roznowski nailed a three with 56 seconds to go to even the score at 68.
McElrath missed a shot at the basket with 42 seconds to go, then Keller knocked down a pair at the line with 32 seconds remaining to give the lead back to the Hawks. With 15 ticks on the clock, Keller, who finished with a game-high 23 points, stole an inbounds pass and then hit two more free throws to give the Hawks a four-point lead.
The Lady Miners held the Hawks to 31.6 percent shooting for the night, but made only two of their final 13 field goal attempts after building the 10-point lead.
McCaskill led S&T (15-3, 9-2 GLVC) with 19 points while McElrath finished with 16. The Lady Miners also broke a single-game record by blocking 12 shots in the contest.
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