Box Score

OWENSBORO, Ky. – A scoring drought in the latter portion of the first half put Missouri S&T's men's basketball team into a hole it couldn't escape from Sunday afternoon, as its season came to a conclusion with a 79-59 loss to No. 19-ranked Kentucky Wesleyan in the opening round of the SCHEELS Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

The loss ended the Miners' season with a record of 7-20, while the 21-6 Panthers move on to the quarterfinals in Springfield, Ill., where they will take on No. 9-ranked Northern Kentucky Friday afternoon.

After falling behind 11-4 in the early going, the Miners outscored the Panthers 11-2 over a span of five minutes and took their only lead of the game at 15-13 on a jumper by Tommy Pelczynski (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) at the 9:43 mark of the first half.  S&T got the first six points in that spurt from Michael Jackson (Wichita, Kan./Wichita East) and tied the score before Pelczynski's basket on a three-pointer by Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East).

But after Pelczynski's basket, the Panthers went on a scoring run of their own as they rattled off 14 straight points over the next 5:13 to take a 12-point lead and never looked back.  Anthony Young, who came into the game as the GLVC's leading scorer, tied the game with a jumper and knocked down a three-pointer with 7:45 to play that put the Panthers ahead to stay.

Kentucky Wesleyan outscored the Miners 21-3 to finish the half with a 34-18 advantage, then blew the game open at the beginning of the second half as it outscored S&T 22-8 over the first seven minutes to extend its lead to 30 points. 

The Panthers' largest lead would be of 34 points before the Miners cut it down to the eventual final margin of 20 over the final five minutes of action.

Pelczynski and Carlton Westbrook (Centralia, Ill./Centralia), who were playing in their final games for the Miners Sunday, both finished in double figures in the scoring column.  Pelczynski led the way with 16 points, while Westbrook had 10 in his final Miner appearance.  S&T also got 13 points and eight rebounds from Jackson.

The Panthers finished the game by shooting 47.2 percent from the field and turned the ball over just six times in the contest.  Brandon Johnson led the way with 17 points while Young and Marseilles Stewart scored 13 apiece for KWC.