ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T made one big second half run to cut into a 17-point deficit, but Missouri-St. Louis answered that with one of its own and went on to knock off the Miners 88-74 Thursday in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest.

S&T scored 11 straight points to get to within six early in the second half, but the Tritons responded with an 10-0 outburst and never looked back as they dropped the Miners to the .500 mark for the season.

The Miners got out of the gate quickly, hitting 10 of their first 14 shots from the field and building a 23-14 lead by the 11:37 mark on a lay-in by Marcus Walden (Augusta, Ga./Academy of Richmond Co.).  Walden scored 10 of the Miners' first 23 points to help S&T build the early advantage.

However, a 10-0 run by the Tritons gave UMSL the lead at 24-23 before a three-pointer by Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) put S&T back in front with 8:55 to go in the half.

UMSL regained the lead two possessions later on a three-point basket by Derek Shouse and carried that lead into halftime, as it built the margin up to seven at 44-37 before the intermission.

When the second half began, Tylor Wimbish – who had just one basket in the first 20 minutes – began taking control of matters inside.   He scored on the Tritons' first two possessions of the second half and his basket with 17:46 on the clock gave UMSL a 14-point lead at 53-39.

Moments later, a three-point play by Neil Branham extended the lead to Triton lead to 17, before the Miners rattled off 11 straight points – capped by Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School)' trey -- to get the lead down to six before the first media timeout of the second half.

After the timeout, however, UMSL got a pair of baskets from Kevin Swanson and one from Brandon Marquardt to halt the run, as the Tritons recorded a 10-0 run of their own to push the lead back to 16.  S&T made one last run at the Tritons in the final minutes, getting to within 11 with just over three minutes left, but saw UMSL push the margin back out to 16.

The Miners shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the first half, but hit only 39.5 percent after the intermission to finish at 46.9 percent.  Walden had a career-high 21 points to lead S&T, while B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) was the only other Miner in double figure with 12 points.

UMSL (14-4, 6-2 GLVC) had five players in double figures, led by Aareon Smith with 18 points and Shouse with 16.  The Tritons shot 68.2 percent in the final 20 minutes and finished the night at 56.6 percent overall.

The Miners (8-8, 1-7 GLVC) close out their four-game stretch away from home Saturday when they face Maryville University in a 3 p.m. contest in St. Louis.