ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's furious rally in the final minutes fell short Saturday afternoon, as Illinois Springfield's parade to the free throw line proved to be enough to send the Miners to an 89-80 Great Lakes Valley Conference loss at Billy Key Court.

The Miners outscored the Prairie Stars 69-46 from the floor, but given 52 opportunities at the charity stripe, UIS cashed in on 43 of them to overcome the difference.  The visitors also outrebounded the Miners 37-32 and were able to stave off S&T's late run that saw it cut an 11-point deficit down to three in the final minute of play.

The first half saw eight ties and nine lead changes, with the Miners leading by as many as six with just under five minutes to play in the half.    Tyler Anderson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North)'s two free throws gave S&T that six-point advantage at 31-25, but the Prairie Stars knotted the score over the next two minutes.  The Miners regained a four-point lead after that tie, before UIS outscored S&T 8-2, capped by J.J. Cravatta's three-point basket, to close the half with a 39-37 lead.

S&T regained the advantage on its opening possession of the second half on a Michael Nesbitt (Evansville, Ind./LaLumiere School) three-pointer, then took the lead two more times in the early minutes, the last time at 46-45 on B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central)'s basket witih 16:36 to go.  UIS went back in front on its next trip down the floor on two free throws by Mark Weems, starting a 7-0 spurt that gave it a lead it would not relinquish.

A basket by McLaughlin with 8:05 remaining cut the UIS lead to one at 64-63, but the Prairie Stars responded with a 10-0 run that gave them their largest lead of 11 with 4:46 to play. 

The Prairie Stars still led by 10 with just over two minutes to play, but S&T quickly got the margin down to six on two Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) free throws and a coast-to-coast lay-in by Clement Bonardo (LaFarlede, France/Costebelle) after a UIS missed shot.   After two free throws by Weems with 1:40 to go, Buerge converted a three-point play to draw S&T to within five, then a blocked shot by Bonardo led to a lay-in by Buerge to make it 83-80 with 57 seconds left.

Cravatta, however, hit six straight at the foul line in the final 49 seconds to salt away the victory.

The Miners (9-12, 2-11 GLVC) had four players in double figures, led by Buerge with 21 points.  Bonardo finished with 16, while McLaughlin had 15 and Nesbitt added 13.  S&T shot only 39.5 in the second half and just four-of-18 from three-point range, finishing at 42.3 percent overall.

Cravatta led all scorers with 24 points, while Dylan Sparkman added 20.  UIS (9-12, 3-10 GLVC) hit on 46.5 percent of its shots and turned the ball over just 11 times against a Miner defense that was forcing better than 20 turnovers per contest.

The Miners, who completed a four-game homestand with Saturday's contest, now head to the road for a challenging road trip that will begin Thursday in Kenosha, Wis., against a 20-2 and 14^th-ranked Wisconsin-Parkside squad.  Game time is at 7:30 p.m.