ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Missouri S&T's furious second half comeback effort ran out of time Saturday afternoon, as Lewis held on to beat the Miners 84-80 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest.

The Flyers led by 11 at halftime, then outscored the Miners 14-2 to open the second half and eventually built the lead to as much as 24 in the first four minutes after the break.  S&T cut into the margin with a 7-0 run, but for several minutes was unable to get the below the 17-point mark.

With just under six minutes remaining, Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) hit a pair of free throws that got the margin down to 15 and started S&T on a flurry that saw it chop into the Flyers' lead.  Following the free throws, Ellis stole the ball from Capel Henshaw and scored to get it to within 13, then answered a dunk by Frank Vukaj with a three-pointer to make it 76-64.

A free throw by Tyler Anderson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North), followed by two free throws by Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) brought the Miners to within nine, then after a missed three-pointer by Max Strus, Buerge drilled a three-pointer out of the corner to trim the lead to six with 3:13 remaining.

Jay Corwin (Independence, Mo./Blue Springs)'s basket drew the Miners to within five a little over a minute later, but Strus hit a short jumper in the lane on the Flyers' next trip down the floor to push the lead back to seven.  A lay-in by Ellis at the 1:07 mark cut it back to five, then it went down to four after Anderson hit the front end of a one-and-one.

Anderson missed the second free throw with 45 seconds to go, but Buerge got the offensive rebound to give S&T a chance to make it a one-possession game.  However, Buerge missed a driving layup that would have made it a two-point game and the Flyers were able to hold off the Miners at the free throw line in the final 31 seconds.

S&T shot 50 percent from the field in the second half, but hit only 34.3 percent of its shots in the first 20 minutes as it trailed 44-33 at the break.  The Miners were down 20-18 after a lay-in by Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) midway through the half, but were outscored 24-15 over the balance of the half.

Delaney Blaylock scored the first five points of a 22-7 surge the Flyers posted after S&T got to within two as part of a big afternoon he produced, finishing with a game-high 27 points.  Blaylock also hit five of the Flyers' 11 three-point baskets in the contest, as Lewis shot 50 percent in a game where its starters scored 81 of its 84 points.

Vukaj finished with a career-high 18 points for the Flyers (10-4, 2-2 GLVC) and Strus added 16.

Ellis led the Miners with 24 points – 21 of them in the second half – while Paulauskas had 12 and Buerge finished with 10.

Lewis also outrebounded the Miners by a 43-32 margin and blocked six shots, but the Miners did force 18 turnovers while committing only eight on their own part.

The Miners, 7-7 overall and 3-2 in the GLVC, return home to face Saint Joseph's Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. game at Billy Key Court.