KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With Saturday’s game at Drury looming, the Missouri S&T women’s basketball team made sure to take care of one matter of business before taking their shot at the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division lead -- beating Rockhurst Thursday night.
The Lady Miners used an early run to take control of the contest and went on to defeat the Hawks 70-52 at Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse, moving to within a one-half game of idle Drury for the lead in the division.
The Lady Miners shot 60.7 percent from the floor -- 17-of-28 -- in the opening half and built as much as an 18-point lead in the first 20 minutes before taking a 41-26 lead to the locker room.
Rockhurst opened the game by taking a 10-5 lead, but S&T rattled off the next 15 points to go up 20-10 and never looked back. Tamara McCaskill’s jumper at the 14:47 mark put the Lady Miners in front. McCaskill and Katie McElrath combined to score 18 of S&T’s 41 points in the opening half.
After the Lady Miners pushed their lead out to 25 in the early stages of the second half, Rockhurst got hot from three-point range and closed the gap to 12 with just over seven minutes to go on a three-pointer by Amy Hake.
Following Hake's second straight trey that made it 59-47, the Lady Miners got the game back into their control on a basket by Katie Bunge and a three-pointer by Chism McEntire to extend the lead to the eventual final margin of 18.
McEntire led a balanced scoring effort with 14 points, while McCaskill finished with 13 and McElrath and Lauren Dubbert posted 10 points apiece. Dubbert posted her first double-double of the year as she also pulled down 10 rebounds.
The Lady Miners shot 50 percent from the floor, marking the third straight game they have made at least 50 percent of their field goal attempts.
Missouri S&T (19-4, 13-3 GLVC), which has already clinched a berth in the GLVC Tournament, will play sixth-ranked Drury (21-2, 13-2 GLVC) at 3:15 Saturday at Weiser Gym in Springfield.
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