LIBERTY, Mo. – Another cold shooting night for Missouri S&T led to a setback at William Jewell Thursday night, as the Miners made just 35.4 percent of their shots in a 81-71 loss to the Cardinals.

The loss was the fourth in succession for the Miners on the opening contest of a four-game road swing in Great Lakes Valley Conference play, dropping them to 8-6 overall and 1-5 in league play. 

After the Miners built an early seven-point lead, the Cardinals rattled off 10 straight to take their first lead of the contest at 18-15 on Jordan Lewis' three-point basket at the 11:27 mark.   S&T took the lead back under a minute later when Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) followed a one-of-two trip to the line by Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) with a three-pointer of his own.

B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central)'s basket at the 7:01 mark after his had his initial shot blocked gave S&T a five-point lead of 25-20 and after the Cardinals came back to tie the score, a dunk by Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) gave the Miners what would be their final lead with 4:46 remaining in the first half.

William Jewell went back into the lead on another three-point basket by Lewis with 3:11 to play, as it outscored S&T 10-2 to finish the half with a 35-29 lead.  The Cardinals then built the lead to 15 prior to the first media timeout of the second half on a three-point play by D'Vante Mosby.

The Miners cut the margin down to 10 on three occasions, the last at 57-47 on a floater by Clement Bonardo (LaFarlede, France/Costebelle) with 11:05 to go, but the Cardinals were again able to push the margin back out to 16 over the next four minutes.

S&T again got the lead down to 11 twice, first on a Zuikov three-pointer and then on a lay-in by Marcus Walden (Augusta, Ga./Academy of Richmond Co.) with 4:37 remaining.  The Miners then got to within nine with just over four minutes to play on a lay-in by Bonardo, but a three-pointer by Darius Tomlin put the Cardinal lead back into double figures.

A three-point play by Buerge with 53 seconds to go drew the Miners to within eight, but those would turn out to be the last points S&T would score.

Walden led the Miners with 14 points, while Buerge was also in double figures with 13.  S&T made just 31.3 percent of its shots in the opening half and while improving to just under 40 percent after the intermission, hit only two-of-10 from three-point range as it trailed throughout the final 20 minutes.  The Miners have shot under 40 percent from the field in all four games of their current skid.

Lewis led all scorers in the game with 23 points, including a seven-of-11 performance from beyond the arc for the Cardinals (7-7, 3-3 GLVC).

The Miners will face Rockhurst Saturday in a 3 p.m. contest in Kansas City, Mo.