Box Score ROLLA, Mo. – A cold stretch at the start of the game and another in the final 10 minutes of play doomed Missouri S&T Wednesday night, as the Miners dropped their final contest before the holiday break by the score of 63-48 to Lindenwood at Billy Key Court.

The Miners did not make a field goal for nearly six minutes at the beginning of the game and had just two field goals in the final 10 minutes after cutting a 14-point lead down to one.  In between the two scoring droughts, the Miners – who played the game without their top two scorers in uniform – played well and outscored the Lions during that period of time.

Lindenwood jumped out to a 10-1 lead before S&T got its first field goal of the game on a jumper by Curtis Okafor (Kansas City, Mo./Bishop Miege) at the 14:01 mark, then the Lions were able to extend the lead to as much as 14 at 25-11 with just over six minutes to play in the half. 

The Miners outscored the Lions 14-4 over the final 5:32, getting nine of the points from Zach Ellis and Okafor, to trail by just four at the intermission.

After the Lions extended their lead back to eight in the early moments of the second half, the Miners rattled off seven straight points and drew to within one at 35-34 on a lay-up by Okafor that followed a steal by Brian Gifford (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North).  S&T cut the lead to one on two more occasions, the last at 43-42 on Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East)'s lay-in with 10:30 to go, but the Miners started to go cold from the field as they missed a chance to take the lead on their next trip down the floor.

The Lions, who struggled at the free throw line for most of the first 30 minutes as they were 6-of-17 at one point, got their next four points at the charity stripe and then got a three-pointer from Cody Sorenson to extend its lead back to eight.

Eli Steinbeck (Hermann, Mo./Hermann)'s dunk with 6:32 to play cut the Lindenwood lead to 52-45, but that would be the last S&T field goal until a minute remained on the clock, at which point the Lions had built their largest advantage of the game of 16 points.

The Miners shot just 33.3 percent from the field for the night and made only three-of-17 from three-point range.  Ellis scored a career-high 14 points, while Okafor finished the night with 10 and led S&T with eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

Sorenson, who hit all four of Lindenwood's three-pointers, led all scorers with 18 while Richie Thompson recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.  The Lions shot 44.9 percent from the field, but made only four-of-19 from long range and turned the ball over 16 times.  Lindenwood held a 42-34 advantage on the boards.

Missouri S&T, who fell to 3-4 on the season, will return to action Dec. 31 when it hosts Benedictine-Springfield in a 2 p.m. game at Billy Key Court.