ST. LOUIS,  Mo. – Down by as many 17 points in the first half, Missouri S&T stormed back to take a 13-point lead in the second half and held off a late rally by Missouri-St. Louis for an 85-81 win Saturday afternoon.

The win gave the Miners a 2-0 start in Great Lakes Valley Conference play for just the second time in S&T's 11^th season as a member of the conference.  Long range shooting, particularly in the second half, was a key as the Miners went 10-of-17 from beyond the three-point line and six-of-seven in the final 20 minutes.

The Miners, now 3-5 overall, got off to a slow start as they fell behind by eight in the first four minutes of play and by as much as 17 after the Tritons outscored S&T 16-5 over a span of six minutes.

S&T began cutting into the margin, getting it under 10 following a basket by Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) at the 3:46 mark and eventually tied the game at 41 right before the end of the first half on a three-pointer by Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School).

After a slow start on the offensive that led to them falling into the early hole, the Miners hit six of their final nine shots of the half and seven-of-eight at the line as they outscored UMSL 32-15 over the final 9:30 before the break.

UMSL scored the first five points of the second half to go back in front, but the Miners rattled off the next 10 to take their first lead of the contest at the 16:25 mark on a three-pointer by Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage).  A little over four minutes later, with the Miners holding a three-point lead, Buerge converted a traditional three-point play following a timeout to push the S&T lead to six at 57-51.

The Tritons closed to within two and had a chance to tie the game, but following a missed shot, the Miners got a basket from Allen Billinger (Carbondale, Ill./Carbondale) and one from B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) on the next trip down the floor – McLaughlin's first field goal of the contest – with 8:51 to play to go back up by six.

Billinger then nailed a three-pointer to make it a nine-point Miner lead, followed by a trey by Zuikov to give S&T a 69-57 lead with 7:32 to go.  After UMSL got it down to 10 on a basket by Cortez Conners, Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) drilled a three-pointer to extend the margin to 13.

After McLaughlin hit two free throws with 5:07 left, Tre Ogles got a four-point play for UMSL to cut the lead down to eight, then following two Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) free throws, Ogles hit another three after the Tritons got an offensive rebound to make it a seven-point game with 4:11 remaining.

Ellis hit a three-pointer out of the corner with 2:27 left to put the Miners up 82-73, but UMSL got the margin down to four following treys by Ogles and Brandon Marquardt.  With 50 seconds left, Joseph English grabbed the rebound of a missed three by Ogles and scored to cut the lead to two.

S&T turned the ball over with 32 seconds remaining, but English missed a fallaway jumper 10 seconds later that Ellis rebounded for the Miners; Ellis hit a pair at the line with 18 seconds to go to extend the S&T lead to four.

Marquardt missed a three-point shot in the waning seconds, then missed another as time expired.

Besides hitting six of their seven three-point shots in the second half, the Miners connected on 50 percent of their shots in the final 20 minutes while holding the Tritons to 36.8 percent shooting.  S&T also had an eight-rebound advantage in the contest – Tyler Anderson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North) led S&T with eight -- and outscored UMSL 27-15 at the foul line.

Ellis led four Miners in double figures with 19 points, while Billinger scored a career-high 13 and Simon finished with 12.  Zuikov also ended up in double figures with 11 points.

Marquardt, who was six-of-11 from three-point land, had a game-high 26 points to lead the Tritons (3-4, 0-2 GLVC) while Ogles finished with 18.

Missouri S&T opens a four-game homestand Tuesday when it hosts Blackburn in a non-conference game at 5:30 p.m. at  Billy Key Court.