ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T and Drury got into a scoring fest Saturday night at Billy Key Court, but Drury was able to make the plays down the stretch to hand the Miners a 96-90 defeat in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at Billy Key Court.

After the Miners and Panthers swapped the lead four times in the final five-plus minutes of the game, Drury took the lead for good with 1:12 to play as it outscored the Miners 9-3 after the game was tied at 87. Brandon Lockhart's two free throws at that point gave Drury the advantage for good.

The Panthers took a 10-point lead on two occasions in the opening half, the last at 27-17 on a basket by Andrew Taylor. S&T responded with a 15-3 run, highlighted by four three-point baskets, to take a 32-30 lead when Mike Malat (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon) connected on a trey at the 6:47 mark. Drury regained the lead on two free throws by Dennon Mitchell a little over a minute later and would take a 49-47 lead to the locker room.

Missouri S&T shot 60.7 percent from the field in the opening half, but the Panthers connected on 61.5 percent of their shots in the first 20 minutes. The teams continued their hot shooting in the opening moments of the second half, as Carlton Westbrook (Centralia, Ill./Centralia) and Tommy Pelczynski (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) hit three-pointers on the first two S&T possessions to put the Miners back in front at 53-49.

However, Drury got the lead back and would push the margin to 10 once again with 11:13 remaining; the Panthers still led by nine at 79-70 with 7:47 left to play. S&T followed a basket by Mitchell that made it a nine-point game by rattling off 14 of the next 15 points, moving in front when Maurice Grinter (Louisville, Ky./Fairdale) connected on a pair of free throws at the 5:02 mark.

After Grinter made one of two at the line with 4:03 left to extend the S&T lead to 84-80, Alex Hall hit a three-pointer and then a layup for the Panthers to put his team back in front. Grinter scored on a lay-in to get the Miners back into the lead, but Chris Parks hit a pair at the line with 2:22 to go to put the Panthers back in front.

The Miners tied the game once again with 1:20 to go when Grinter made the second of two free throws, before Lockhart started the game-winning spurt for the Panthers with his two free throws. Moments after Lockhart scored, Hall made a steal from Malat and drove the length of the floor for a layup to make it a four-point game.

Malat scored a season-high 27 points, including six of the Miners' 13 three-point baskets, to lead S&T. Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) also hit a season high with 24 points, marking the first time since last December's game at Illinois-Springfield that the Miners have had two 20-point scorers in the same contest.

Grinter recorded his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 14 rebounds, while Westbrook also got into double figures with 14 points and Aaron Hays (Kirksville, Mo./Kirksville) finished with a career-high nine assists.  The Miners finished the night by shooting 50.9 percent --52 percent from three-point range – but Drury ended the evening at 58.2 percent from the field.

Hall had 27 points to pace the Panthers (10-5, 3-4 GLVC) and Jajuan Maxwell finished with 21.

Missouri S&T, 6-9 overall and 2-6 in the GLVC, will host Saint Joseph's Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Billy Key Court.