Box Score ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T made a couple of rally efforts at Missouri-St. Louis Saturday afternoon, but wasn't able to finish the job as it suffered its third straight setback in a 78-71 loss to the Tritons at Billy Key Court.

The loss dropped the Miners to 6-14 overall and 2-11 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference with just five regular season games remaining.

After a slow start, one that saw S&T fall behind by 13 points in the game's first eight minutes, the Miners overcame that deficit to take their first lead since the opening possession of the contest.   S&T was down by 12 at the 10:30 mark, but outscored UMSL 19-7 over the 8:35 to tie the game on Julian Johnson (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School)'s three-point play. 

The Miners would then grab the lead at 33-32 on their next possession when Eli Steinbeck (Hermann, Mo./Hermann) hit the second of two free throws with 1:09 to go.

However, the Tritons would take the lead back on Neil Branham's three-pointer and after S&T tied the score on a lay-in by Mudi Eruteya, Branham hit another trey just before the end of the half to give UMSL a 38-35 advantage at the break.

The Tritons held onto that lead throughout the second half and built it to nine by the 11:44 mark when S&T made a surge to draw to within one possession.  An alley-oop dunk by Michael Jackson (Wichita, Kan./Wichita East) off a pass from Johnson, followed by a steal and lay-up by Zach Ellis, cut the lead to three and forced UMSL to use a timeout. 

But after that stoppage, Michael Weber drilled a three-pointer to push the UMSL lead back to six.

UMSL's lead would reach 11 before the Miners made one more push, getting to within five at 63-58 after a lay-in by Eruteya, but the Miners were only able to score once from the field over the next five minutes as the Tritons extended the margin to as much as 13.

Eruteya led four Miners in double figures with 19 points and Johnson finished with a career-high 15, while Jackson and Michael Nesbitt (Evansville, Ind./LaLumiere School) had 10 points apiece.  The Miners shot 53.3 percent from the floor – they were at 65 percent in the first half – and also outrebounded the Tritons by a 31-24 margin.

UMSL, 14-7 overall and 7-6 in the GLVC, also had four players in double figures with Darian Cartharn's 17 leading the way.

Missouri S&T heads to the road for its next two contests, beginning Thursday at Illinois Springfield at 7:30 p.m.