SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Missouri S&T went toe-to-toe all afternoon with 13^th-ranked Angelo State Saturday afternoon, but couldn't quite get over the hump as the Rams came away with a 94-87 win on the second day of the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic.

The Miners hung in the game with the Rams throughout the day and on four occasions in the final 12 minutes, had the ball down by one possession.   However, the Miners were unable to convert on any of those chances as Angelo State held on to improve to 7-0 on the season.

S&T held the lead in the early stages of play, leading by as many as five following a Rokas Paulauskas lay-in.  The Rams ran off seven straight points to take the lead before the game went back-and-forth at a furious pace in the first eight minutes of play. 

Paulauskas scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Miners a 21-19 lead with 12:42 left in the first half before ASU got baskets from Stedman Allen and Shelton Boykin to regain the lead about 90 seconds later and never trailed again.

Angelo State eventually pushed its lead to 10 following a three-pointer by Shaqhan Rhodes at the 4:59 mark, but S&T outscored the Rams 11-2 over the next 2:20 to close to within one following another basket by Paulauskas.  The Rams would eventually lead 46-41 at the half.

B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) came alive at the beginning of the second half, scoring S&T's first seven points as the Miners got to within striking distance.  After the Rams pushed the advantage back to six, the Miners got a three-pointer from Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) and another basket by McLaughlin to cut the lead to 58-57.

S&T got to within one again at 63-62 following a trey by Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) with 12:32 remaining, but Angelo State went on a 13-5 spurt to go back up by nine over the next four minutes.

Down 78-69, The Miners scored 10 of the next 15 points to cut the lead to one again after Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) knocked down a three-pointer.   S&T missed a chance to tie or take the lead after forcing an ASU, however, as a turnover led to an Allen fast break basket to extend the lead to four.

McLaughlin threw down a dunk moments later over ASU's Omari Gudul to get the lead back down to two, but Gudul blocked a shot on the Miners' next trip down the floor as they tried to tie it, leading to another runout by Allen for a basket to make it a four-point game.

Poythress drained a trey with 2:01 left to make it a three-point contest again, then the Miners had a chance to tie the game after Boykin missed two free throws with 1:31 to go.  However, S&T missed a three-pointer and then couldn't get the rebound when Boykin missed another free throw with 1:06 left, leading to a Gudul basket that made it a two-possession game.

McLaughlin scored 21 of his career-high 26 points in the second half to lead all scorers in the game, while Paulauskas finished with 17 – along with 12 rebounds -- and Simon with 14.  Zuikov also reached double figures for the Miners with 11 points as the Miners made a season-high 13 three-point baskets.

Allen had 23 points to lead the Rams while Boykin also recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.  Angelo State shot 54.4 percent for the game to the 40.8 percent mark posted by the Miners.

Missouri S&T (1-5) opens its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Thursday when it hosts Maryville in a 7:30 p.m. contest Thursday at Billy Key Court.