Box Score LEBANON, Ill. – A cold second half from long range, coupled with a big rebounding advantage and parade to the free throw line by McKendree in  the final 20 minutes, allowed the Bearcats to knock off Missouri S&T's men's basketball team Saturday afternoon 106-99 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

The Miners held a 47-40 lead at the intermission after a back-and-forth first half, one that saw seven tied and nine lead changes.   Foster, who had a big hand in the Miners obtaining that advantage by scoring 16 points in the first 20 minutes, gave S&T the lead at 37-34 after the Miners got the rebound off a blocked shot when he knocked down a three-pointer with 4:35 to go in the period.

Starting with the Foster trey, S&T outscored the Bearcats 13-6 over the final 4:35 of the half and held as much as a nine-point lead during that span.

However, when the second half began, McKendree quickly cut into the lead on baskets by Will Kirksey and Matt Holmes on the first two possessions after the break.  Foster converted a three-point play at the 18:13 mark to get the Miner lead back to six, but an 8-0 Bearcat run, capped by Clinton Happe's three-pointer gave McKendree the lead back at 56-54.

The Bearcats outscored S&T 21-9 over the first 5:23 of the second half to eventually build a five-point lead by the first media timeout.

Down 70-65 with just over 10 minutes to play, the Miners cut the margin to one on baskets by Aaron Emmanuel (Brampton, Ont./LaLumiere School) and Zachary Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School), but a quick run-out by the Bearcats ended with a basket by Holmes; the free throw that followed made it a four-point game. 

S&T trailed 81-78 and forced a missed shot by Mike DiGregorio, but Logan Carson tipped in the miss to extend the Bearcat lead to five with 5:29 remaining.  DiGregorio would hit a pair at the line nearly a minute later to push the margin to seven.   The Miners would not get within one possession for the balance of the contest.

With 3:37 to play, the Miners were assessed a technical foul after a foul was called underneath and the Bearcats converted three of the four free throws to take the lead out to 10.  S&T got the margin as close as five in the final seconds when Mudiaga Eruteya (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame) knocked down a three-pointer.

Foster led S&T with 27 points and Emmanuel finished with a career-high 23 as four Miners ended up in double figures.  Eruteya also finished with 20 and Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) was the fourth in double figures with 10.   S&T shot 48.1 percent for the game, but after making exactly one-half of their 10 three-point attempts in the first half, it made only three-of-14 from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes.

DiGregorio led all scorers with 30 points, with 20 of them coming at the foul line in 21 attempts.  Happe added 27 for the Bearcats (9-11, 3-9 GLVC) and Holmes finished with 15 and 10 rebounds, as McKendree outrebounded the Miners 26-16 in the second half.

McKendree outscored the Miners 44-13 at the free throw line for the game, including a 34-11 margin in the second half.

The loss was the fourth in succession for Missouri S&T after it entered the now concluded four-game road trip on a four-game winning streak.  S&T is now 9-12 overall and 4-9 in the GLVC as it returns home Thursday to face No. 22-ranked Lewis in a 7:30 p.m. game at Billy Key Court.