Box Score ROLLA, Mo. – After falling behind early and then climbing back into the game, Missouri S&T was hit with an avalanche of points by a white-hot Truman State team in the second half as the Bulldogs topped the Miners 96-74 at Billy Key Court.

The Bulldogs connected on 22-of-26 from the floor in the final 20 minutes and made seven-of-eight from three-point range to pull away in the contest and retained a share of the lead in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division.  Meanwhile, the Miners dropped their ninth straight game to fall to 8-11 overall and 1-10 in league play.

Truman got out to a 12-point lead before the midway point of the first half and held a 14-point advantage with 6:24 to play following a basket by Patrick Burmester.  But sparked by a basket by Tyler Anderson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North), the Miners outscored the Bulldogs 12-3 over the next three minutes to draw to within five.  Michael Nesbitt (Evansville, Ind./LaLumiere School)'s jumper cut the Truman lead to 30-25 just before the three-minute mark of the half.

The Bulldogs would go to the break with a nine-point lead, then began to blow the game open in the early stages of the second half.

Truman would push the margin to 20 nine minutes into the half and would lead by as many as 30 points.

Clement Bonardo (LaFarlede, France/Costebelle) led four Miners in double figures with 19 points, while Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) netted 14.  S&T also got 12 points from Nesbitt and B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central), but shot only 40.6 percent on the afternoon.

The Bulldogs (16-5, 8-3 GLVC) shot 64.3 percent in the game and hit nine-of-13 from three-point range.  Reed Mells led all scorers with 21 points, while the league's leading scorer, Seth Jackson, finished with 20.

S&T did force a season-high 20 turnovers by the Bulldogs, over twice as many as they were averaging coming into Saturday's contest.

The Miners begin the second half of their four-game homestand Thursday when they host McKendree at 7:30 p.m.