ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team had an opportunity to move into third place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference – but let that chance slip away as they were stunned Saturday afternoon 85-80 by Maryville at Billy Key Court.

Earlier in the day, Missouri-St. Louis had lost at Drury to open the door for the Miners to move past the Tritons into third place in the division with a week to play.  But the visiting Saints hit 12 three-point baskets to pull off the victory that ended a 15-game losing streak and started hitting threes right off the bat to trigger the win.

 

After S&T's Marquis Jones (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter) hit a long-range jumper 16 seconds into the game to start the scoring, the Saints hit three-pointers on three straight possessions to take a 9-3 lead. About four minutes after Kyle Winters sunk the third of those treys, he hit another one to give Maryville a 19-11 lead.

 

The Miners trimmed that lead down to two, but the Saints scored nine of the next 11 points to take their biggest lead of the half at 28-19 by the 10:28 mark. S&T still trailed 35-30 by the 6:46 mark, but outscored Maryville 15-6 to finish the half with a 45-41 lead.

 

A fast break layup by Byron Bundy (Columbia, Mo./Hickman) and two free throws by Jones in the first minute of the second half gave the Miners their biggest lead of the contest at 49-41, then Jones hit another basket just over a minute later to offset a three by Cody Sorenson to make the S&T lead seven.

 

However, the Saints got on a roll again from three-point land, getting back-to-back threes from Sorenson and Winters to cut a seven-point lead to one and then taking the lead on a lay-in by Tyler Saxton.

 

Bundy stemmed the run by sinking a jumper in the lane, but Winters drilled another three-pointer to put Maryville back in front by two at 57-55.

 

S&T ran off seven straight points after the Saints took the lead, getting a jumper and a three-point from Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) and a fast-break dunk from A.J. Mandani (Brampton, Ontario/) to go back up by five. But after calling a timeout, the Saints responded by getting two more threes from Winters -- giving him a school record-tying eight for the contest – to bookend an 8-0 run that gave his team the lead again with 9:46 to play.

 

Maryville led for much of the next several minutes, but the Miners took the lead at 80-79 when Bundy converted a three-point play with 51 seconds to go. However, on Maryville's next trip down the floor, Eric Gruenewald went to the free throw line and hit a pair with 41 seconds to go to put the Saints back in front.

 

S&T would not score again and the Saints wrapped up their first-ever GLVC win by converting four straight free throws in the final 29 seconds.

 

Bundy led the Miners with 22 points on the afternoon and was one of four S&T players in double figures. Jones scored a season-high 14, while Mike Malat (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon) finished with 12 and Foster with 10. Mandani ended the day with nine points and eight assists.

 

Winters led all scorers with 24 points – scoring all of them on the eight three-pointers – while Steven Gallian added 16 and Sorenson 15. The Saints (3-22, 1-15 GLVC) were 12-of-30 from behind the arc and shot 50 percent from the floor on the afternoon.

 

S&T (7-17, 3-12 GLVC) will host 22^nd-ranked Drury in its home finale Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Billy Key Court.