Box Score LIBERTY, Mo. – Reaching a mark it had never before attained since joining the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the seventh conference win for Missouri S&T's men's basketball team Saturday netted the Miners more than just a milestone – it also clinched it a berth in the conference tournament.

The Miners got off to a fast start Saturday and withstood a William Jewell rally in the second half, as they led from start to finish in an 86-77 victory at the Mabee Center.  The victory pushed S&T to 7-10 in GLVC play – the Miners' previous high for league wins as a GLVC member was six which they reached two years ago – but guaranteed that they will be playing past Thursday's regular season finale with Drury.

Mudiaga Eruteya (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame) knocked town a three-pointer 18 seconds into the contest to get the Miners going.  S&T would build its lead to 11 by the 12:08 mark after a basket by Aaron Emmanuel (Brampton, Ont./LaLumiere School), the pushed it to 16 on another basket by Emmanuel with 9:40 to go in the half.  After leading by a point just over five minutes earlier, S&T outscored the Cardinals 17-2 over that span.

The Miners would hold a double figure lead for the balance of the half, building it to as many 17 on five different occasions before taking a 12-point lead of 46-34 to the locker room.

S&T had a 57-47 lead following a lay-up by Emmanuel at the 11:56 mark of the second half, but the Cardinals made a push and with eight straight points, drew to within two after a steal and lay-in by Austin Regier.  Eruteya answered back with a three-pointer to quell the uprising momentarily, as Jewell trimmed the lead to one following Clint McCullough's jumper with 7:43 remaining.

But Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central), the Miners' leading scorer on the season who was held to just eight points in Thursday's win at Rockhurst, drained a three-pointer on S&T's next trip down the floor and scored again nearly a minute later – shortly after a basket by Curtis Okafor (Kansas City, Mo./Bishop Miege) – to quickly extend the lead back to seven.

With 5:57 to play, Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) knocked down a trey to give the Miners a nine-point advantage and S&T would lead by at least five for the remainder of the contest.  The Miners led 82-77 after a basket by Devonte Bell with 1:16 left, but the Cardinals did not score again after Bell missed a free throw that followed which would have cut the margin to four.

Foster scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half and was one of four Miners in double figures Saturday.  Eruteya finished with 16 points, while Emmanuel and Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East) recorded 10 points apiece.  The Miners, who shot 52.8 percent in the first half and 50 percent on the afternoon, forced only five Cardinal turnovers but outrebounded William Jewell 46-37.

Michael Nesbitt (Evansville, Ind./LaLumiere School) pulled down nine rebounds for the Miners, while Foster and Emmanuel had seven apiece.  Emmanuel also dished out a career-high eight assists.

Bell and Dwight Sistrunk led the Cardinals (11-14, 7-10 GLVC) with 14 points apiece, but William Jewell – who knocked off second-ranked Drury on Thursday – connected on just 36.8 percent of its field goal attempts and three-of-20 from three-point range.

Missouri S&T will host Drury Thursday in its final regular season home game at 7:30 p.m.  The Panthers (23-2, 15-2 GLVC) needed overtime to dispatch Rockhurst Saturday by a count of 77-73.