QUINCY, Ill. – For the second time in as many games, the Miners were outgunned by a hot shooting team, as Quincy used a 61 percent night from the floor to defeat Missouri S&T 88-73 Thursday in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

 

The Hawks shot 56 percent in the first half and followed that with a 65 showing after the intermission – and got huge games from Mookie Pierre and Tyler Burke as they pulled away from S&T in the final 11 minutes.

 

After the teams swapped points over the first few minutes of the contest, the Hawks got hot from the floor to build an 11-point lead. Mookie Pierre's three at the 11:52 mark started a run where Quincy scored 10 of the next 13 points.

 

S&T trailed 38-27 when it got three-points on back-to-back trips from Curtis Mosley (Chicago, Ill./) and Marquis Jones (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter) to cut the lead to five. The Hawks went back up by nine, but the Miners got a basket from Justin Taylor (Webster Groves, Mo./Webster Groves) in the final moments of the half to trim it to seven at 42-35 at the intermission.

 

The Miners, who had only eight players in uniform Thursday night, saw Quincy keep its lead in that neighborhood in the early minutes of the second half. However, a lay-in by Mosley and a free throw by Adam Knollmeyer (Linn, Mo./Linn) got the Miners back to within five at the 11:35 mark at 57-52.

 

Pierre responded to the Miners' threat by hitting a jumper and then a three after an S&T turnover, starting a 14-2 run to take their largest lead of the contest by the midway point of the second half.

 

Owain Hall (Kingston, Jamica/)'s three-pointer that followed cut the margin to 12, but that turned out to be as close as S&T would get from that point on.

 

The Miners, who shot 48.1 percent for the night, had four players in double figures with Mosley leading the way with 17 points. Jones finished with 13 points, while Taylor had 12 and Hall posted 11 for S&T.

 

Pierre had a game-high 23 points for Quincy (15-10, 7-8 GLVC), while Justin Brock posted 21. Those two combined to go 17-of-22 from three-point range, with Pierre hitting five three-pointers in seven attempts.

 

The Miners (8-16, 3-12 GLVC), who were mathematically eliminated from contention for the GLVC Tournament with the loss, will face 20^th-ranked Southern Indiana Saturday in Evansville, Ind., at 3:15 p.m.