ROLLA, Mo. – A mini burst to end the first half sparked an even bigger one to begin the second, as Missouri S&T's men's basketball team came alive in the final 20 minutes to rout Missouri Baptist 102-70 in its season opener Saturday night at Billy Key Court.

The Miners held a one-point lead of 38-37 with just under a minute to play in the opening half, but the Miners closed it with six straight points to take a seven point advantage to the locker room.

When the second half began, S&T went on an rampage right from the outset, scoring the first 18 points – and doing so in a span of just over three minutes – to build a 25-point lead and didn't allow the Spartans to make a field goal after the break until 11:47 remained in the contest.

The Miners got off to a bit of a sluggish start from the floor, shooting just 37.5 percent in the opening half and only three-of-14 from three-point range.  S&T trailed by as many as five in the early going and was still behind past the midway point of the half at 18-16.

A three-pointer by Michael Nesbitt (Evansville, Ind./LaLumiere School) started a 7-0 run that put the Miners ahead for good, although the Spartans were able to hang tight for much of that time, staying within a possession or two until the final minute.

Jake Burnett hit two free throws with 56 seconds to go in the half to cut the Miner lead to 38-37, but Zach Ellis answered with a basket at the other end, then made a steal and scored off of that to put S&T up by five.  Moments later, after another MBU turnover, Nesbitt tipped in a miss by Ellis to give the Miners the seven-point lead they would take to the locker room.

S&T opened the second half with an alley-oop dunk from Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) to Clement Bonardo (LaFarlede, France/Costebelle) and took off from there, getting balanced scoring to push the lead out to 25 in just over three minutes.  The Miners made their first eight field goal attempts of the second half, with five different players scoring in that stretch.

Missouri S&T would lead by as many as 34 points in the contest as all 13 players who saw action scored.

Nesbitt led four players in double figures with 16 points, while S&T got 14 from B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) – going seven-of-nine from the floor in doing so – as well as 13 from Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) and 12 from Ellis.

S&T connected on 52.5 percent of its shots in the second half and finished the night at 45 percent from the floor.  It also finished with a 14-rebound advantage over the Spartans and collected 19 steals off 31 MBU turnovers.

Adrian Kuyinu led Missouri Baptist (1-3) with a game-high 27 points.

Missouri S&T will head to the road this week for a pair of big challenges, beginning Tuesday when it faces defending NCAA Division II national champion Central Missouri in a 7 p.m. contest in Warrensburg, Mo.  The Miners will follow that game with an exhibition contest the following night at UMKC.