KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team wasn't quite able to overcome a 10-point second half deficit as it dropped a 68-64 decision to Rockhurst in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

S&T was able to cut a 10-point margin down to one in the final moments, but missed a pair of opportunities to tie the game and dropped its second GLVC game in three days.

The Miners went through a stretch of over five minutes in the first half without a point, which allowed Rockhurst to take an eight-point lead before Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) scored at the 6:50 mark to halt the drought.  Beginning with Foster's basket, S&T outscored the Hawks 20-9 over the balance of the half to take a 28-25 lead to the locker room.

The second half began with the two teams trading three-pointers for the better part of the first four minutes, which included a stretch of five straight trips where a team made a trey. Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East)'s three at the 16:15 mark knotted the score at 39, but Rockhurst ran off 10 straight points beginning with a basket by Aaron Morrissey to take its largest lead of the contest.

S&T trailed by nine with under seven minutes to go, but Mike Malat (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon) made a steal from behind on Morrissey to spark a fast break that ended with a lay-in by Khan. Moments later, Grinter scored on a put-back of his own miss to trim the lead to five, then Grinter scored with three minutes to go and again with 1:21 to play to make it 63-62.

Rockhurst's Blake Baird made the second of two free throws with 49.2 seconds remaining to extend the Hawk lead to two. Grinter was fouled with 25.5 seconds left and made the first of the two, but missed the second to leave the Miners down by a point, then Brandon McCann hit a pair at the line with 17.1 to go to push the Rockhurst lead back to three.

Carlton Westbrook (Centralia, Ill./Centralia) was fouled with 8.8 seconds left, made the first free throw and missed the second on purpose to try and give the Miners a chance to tie it. However, the ball went out of bounds off a Miner and Baird made two free throws a second later to lock up the win for the Hawks.

Grinter recorded his second double-double of the season to lead the Miners, as he finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Khan scored a career-high 12 to finish in double figures as well for S&T, who shot 43.6 percent from the field.

The Hawks connected nine times from long range – six of them coming in the second half – as they shot 50 percent in the game. McCann, who hit five of the treys, scored a game-high 19 points to lead Rockhurst (4-8, 2-2 GLVC).

The Miners, 6-5 overall and 2-2 in GLVC play, continue their five-game road trip Thursday when they face seventh-ranked Kentucky Wesleyan in Owensboro, Ky. Game time will be at 7:30 p.m. for the first of S&T's back-to-back contests against teams ranked in the top 10 in NCAA Division II, as the Miners will also face No. 8 Southern Indiana Saturday.