LIBERTY, Mo. – After building a 16-point lead in the first half, MissourI S&T was unable to slow down William Jewell over a stretch covering parts of both halves or down the stretch as the Cardinals upended the Miners 93-89 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Thursday night.

The Miners led 31-28 following two Patrick Whelan free throws midway through the first half before going on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 12.  Allen Billinger (Carbondale, Ill./Carbondale)'s three-point basket gave S&T that 12-point advantage, then S&T pushed the lead out to 16 on a three-pointer by Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) – the Miners' eighth trey of the half – with 4:41 to play.

But a layup by Larry Fitzgerald on the Cardinals' next trip down the floor started a 14-2 run surge by William Jewell to finish the first half, then the Cardinals scored the first 12 points after the intermission to take an eight-point lead.

Fitzgerald scored 10 of his 17 first half points during the final 4:17 of the half and six more in the early second run as he finished with a game-high 34 points.

Covering the final 4:11 of the first half and first 2:31 of the second, the Cardinals outscored S&T 26-2.

Even after the run that gave Jewell the lead, the Miners worked their way back and knotted things up at 70 on a lay-in by Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) with 9:11 to play.  The Cardinals went back in front and maintained that lead until Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) drained a three-pointer with 2:55 remaining to even things at 82 apiece.

Fitzgerald made two free throws with 2:17 left to put Jewell back into the lead before Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) hit two at the line for S&T to tie at 84 just seconds later.  Fitzgerald hit the second of two at the line with 1:54 remaining to put the Cardinals back up by a point, then after the Miners missed a three-point shot that would have put them into the lead, hit two free throws and a lay-up on Jewell's next two trips down the floor to put his team up by five.

S&T did get within three in the final seconds, but Whelan made a free throw with just over a second to play to ice the win for the Cardinals (6-10, 1-7 GLVC), who broke a five-game losing streak while sending S&T (7-10, 3-5 GLVC) to its fifth straight setback.

Billinger led five Miners in double figures with a career-high 18 points, while Miller and Ellis finished with 15 apiece.  S&T also got 14 points from Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) and 11 from B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central), but shot only 36.1 percent in the second half and 40.8 percent for the game.

The Cardinals, who hit 52.7 percent of their shots on the evening after going 16-of-23 from the floor in the opening half, also got 19 points from Whelan and 15 from Matt Lassen. 

The Miners did have a 43-40 edge on the boards – with 18 offensive rebounds – as Tyler Anderson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North) had a career-high 10.

Missouri S&T will return to action Saturday when it faces Rockhurst in a 3 p.m. game in Kansas City, Mo.