ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T took down a future member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tuesday night to earn its first win of the season, beating William Jewell 70-61 at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

 

The Miners held off a second half rush by the Cardinals – who will join the GLVC in the 2011-12 season – with some big plays on both ends of the floor in the final four minutes after their lead had been trimmed to one.

 

William Jewell led only once in the entire contest, taking a 4-2 lead on a layup by Jonathan Benson just over two minutes into the game. The Miners took the lead back on a three-pointer by Mike Malat (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon) at the 16:14 mark, then Malat hit another trey two minutes later to put S&T up for good and spark a 15-4 run.

 

S&T would eventually build its first half lead to 14 points on a basket by Adam Knollmeyer (Linn, Mo./Linn) with 3:42 to play and would take a 10-point lead of 37-27 to the locker room.

 

The Cardinals cut the halftime margin down to five early in the second half, but the Miners rattled off 11 of the next 15 points to extend the lead back to 12 on a jumper by Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) midway through the period. However, the Miners hit a cold stretch from the floor, allowing Jewell to draw closer over the next several minutes.

 

With 4:29 to go, Benson hit a jumper to get the Cardinals to within a point at 57-56, but Foster answered 12 seconds later by draining a three-pointer from the wing to push the lead back to four.

 

Ryan Carmichael hit one of two at the line for Jewell moments later to make it a three-point game again, but that would turn out to be as close as the Cardinals would get for the rest of the night. Casey Noll (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) scored on a basket down low, then Knollmeyer blocked a shot by Nick Larson and A.J. Mandani (Brampton, Ontario/) finished the sequence by hitting a jumper to give the Miners a seven-point advantage.

 

S&T would wrap up the win by going six-of-six at the free throw line in the final 47 seconds.

 

The Miners had four players end up in double figures, led by Noll and Malat with 14 points apiece. Mandani scored 13 and Foster added 10 for S&T, who shot only 39.7 percent as a whole but connected on seven-of-14 from beyond the arc and 13-of-18 at the line.

 

S&T (1-3) also outrebounded the Cardinals 36-33 and forced the visitors into 23 turnovers.

 

William Jewell (3-3) was led by Kyle Fisher with 18 points.

 

The Miners will host Missouri Baptist Saturday at 3 p.m. before opening GLVC play next Thursday at Illinois-Springfield.