ROLLA – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners used a strong run at the end of the first half to break open a close contest in defeating Maryville 66-47 on Thursday evening in Rolla. With the win S&T improves to 4-0, 1-0 GLVC on the young season and is off to its best since the 2005-06 season when it won its first six contests.

With the victory the Lady Miners also won their seventh straight conference lid-lifter.

S&T trailed the Saints (2-3, 0-1 GLVC) by as many as five on three different occasions early in the contest. Maryville led 18-13 with 9:34 to play in the opening stanza when Kyesha Hall provided a spark off the bench for the Lady Miners with back-to-back jumpers to make it a one-point contest.

Katelyn Heil gave S&T the lead with a jumper from Quintonia Evans at the 7:15 mark for its first lead of the night. Karli Sample pushed the advantage to three hitting a jumper in the paint with 6:24 remaining.

The Saints regained the lead with five quick points on a three from Abby Duethman and a jumper by Angela Pepowski with 5:33 to play.

The final five minutes belonged to the Lady Miners as they went on a 16-2 run building a 12 point advantage which was their largest of the half. Courtney Kemp led the charge with nine while Hailee Parks added four more.

S&T went into the break with a 37-27 lead.

After a slow start shooting to begin the contest, the Lady Miners heated up the rest of the way making 16-of-31 (51.6 percent) from the floor and dominated in the paint scoring 18 times down low. Kemp had nine to lead the way. Parks and Hall dropped in eight apiece while Julie Meyer added seven more.

Maryville shot 40 percent (10-for-25) from the field but was 3-of-10 from downtown. Shelby Miller led the Saints with five points. Kate Childs, Rita Flynn and Erica Lorton had four points each.

S&T’s hot shooting continued five minutes into the second stanza connecting on 5-of-6 in building a 48-29 lead. Maryville cut the lead to 12 on two different occasions but didn’t get any closer than that.

The Lady Miners led by as many as 21 late in the second half before settling on the 19-point margin.

S&T finished the contest shooting 48.3 percent (29-for-60) from the floor and outrebounded the Saints by a 45-to-28 margin. The Lady Miners dominated in the paint finishing with a 38-to-24 advantage and held the edge in second chance points outscoring Maryville 15-2.

Meyer led four S&T players in double figures with 15 points. Parks had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Hall added 12 and Kemp contributed 11.

The Lady Miners kept their strong play on the defensive end going as well holding Maryville to just 30 percent shooting in the second half and their fourth straight opponent under 50 points.

Duethman was the only Saints player in double figures with 10. Miller added seven while Flynn dropped home six. Five other players had four points each.

S&T returns to the home court on Saturday afternoon hosting the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 1 p.m.