SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Caught up in a tough battle with a team from its former conference for the second day in succession, Missouri S&T came away victorious again Saturday afternoon as Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) made two free throws with 0.8 seconds to play in double overtime, giving the Miners a 97-96 win over Emporia State.

The Miners completed the sweep of the two games against teams from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in the Elliott Lodging/Drury Thanksgiving Classic to improve to 5-0 on the year as they prepare to open Great Lakes Valley Conference action Thursday back in Rolla.

With Emporia State leading 93-92 with just over a minute to play, S&T's Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) knocked down a three-pointer from in front of the Miner bench to put his team back into the lead  -- only to see Josh Pedersen respond with 29 seconds to play with a trey of his own to give Emporia a 96-95 lead.

Holmes missed a shot with three seconds to go, but the ball went out of bounds to S&T.  On the inbounds pass, Scott was fouled under the basket and hit the two free throws that followed to give the Miners the lead and win with 0.8 seconds remaining.

Unlike Friday's game, when the Miners came out of the gate on fire, the shots were not falling in the early going for S&T at the start of Saturday's contest.  The Miners got their first points after more than three minutes had elapsed to start an 8-0 run to give them their first lead following a lay-in by Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.).

The teams swapped the advantage for a few minutes, with S&T taking a brief three-point lead on Holmes' three-pointer at the 11:03 mark, but the Hornets took the lead for the balance of the first half when Brandon Hall knocked down a foul line jumper with just over nine minutes to go in the half.

Emporia State extended that margin to as much as nine with four minutes to play in the half, but the Miners closed the half by scoring eight of the final 10 points – including a second chance basket by Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) just before the buzzer sounded – to trail 36-33 at the break.

S&T shot just 39.3 percent and made only one of its six three-point attempts in the first 20 minutes.

The momentum from Miller's basket to close the first half carried into the start of the second half, as the Miners got three-pointers from Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) and Holmes on their first two possessions to regain the lead.  S&T would eventually rattle off 13 straight in the half before the Hornets broke the run on a basket by Jevon Taylor at the 16:32 mark.

The Miners would push the lead to 10 on a layup by Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) before ESU starting cutting into the lead, getting it down to two at 52-50 after Jay Temaat's three-point shot.  Emporia State then took the lead with 8:04 to go on a lay-in by Pedersen, only to see the Miners get the lead back when Holmes drained a three from the top of the key.

Pedersen scored on back-to-back Hornet possessions to give his team the lead back before the six-minute mark.  With five minutes to go, Temaat drained a three off an inbounds pass to extend the Hornet lead to five, before S&T ran off six in a row to regain the lead on Scott's driving lay-in with 3:07 left.

After Hall put ESU back into the lead, Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) – who had been saddled with foul trouble and had not made a shot from the floor – tossed in a rainbow in the lane with 2:31 remaining to give S&T a 69-68 lead.

The Miners got a stop on the defensive end, then Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) drilled a 25-footer with the shot clock running down to extend the lead to four.  Then after ESU's Tyler Jordan missed the front end of a one-and-one, the Miners came back quickly and Scott scored at the basket to push the margin to six.

S&T led by five and had the basketball with 31 seconds to go, but threw the ball away on the inbounds pass, then Brian Morton converted a three-point play to trim the lead to two.  Miller would make two free throws with 19.9 seconds to go to make it a four-point Miner lead, but Hall came right back and scored to make It 77-75.

On the ensuing inbounds pass, the ball was deflected out of bounds and awarded to the Hornets on the S&T baseline, after which Hall drove to the basket to tie the score with 8.2 seconds remaining.  The Miners were unable to get a shot off before regulation time ended to send the game to overtime.

S&T scored the first four points in overtime on baskets by Paulauskas and Miller, but the Hornets rallied back and with 56.5 seconds to go, Morton hit two free throws to give ESU an 86-85 lead.   Paulauskas gave S&T the lead back with a hook shot in the lane with 36.2 seconds to go, but Morton, with a chance to tie the score with 24.3 to go, made one of two to tie it at 87.

With the Miners playing for the last shot, Simon was called for an offensive foul with three seconds left, but Hall released a shot he made from 40 feet away after the buzzer sounded to bring about a second overtime period.

Emporia State grabbed the initial lead in the second overtime when Morton hit the second of two free throws, then Miller hit the second of two fouls shots himself to tie it back up.  With 2:37 to go, Scott got a backside rebound off a Holmes miss and put it back in to give S&T the lead, then after the Miners got the ball back, Holmes fed Paulauskas inside for a basket to make it a four-point lead.

Temaat knocked down another three with 1:42 to left to cut the Miner lead back to one, then Morton gave ESU the lead back at the 1:14 mark with two free throws to set the stage for the exciting final minute of action. 

Holmes led five Miners in double figures with 20 points, while Paulauskas -- who along with Holmes were named to the all-tournament team -- finished with 19 and Miller with 15.  S&T, who shot 56.1 percent from the field in the second half and overtime, also got 13 points from Scott and 11 from Myers as they reached 5-0 to start a season for just the ninth time in program history.

Simon had nine rebounds and Holmes eight for S&T, who had a 49-41 advantage on the boards in the contest.

Morton had 22 points for the Hornets (2-5) to lead all scorers, while Hall had 18 and Temaat 16 as the Hornets hit 42 percent of their shots from the field.

The Miners open Great Lakes Valley Conference play at home Thursday when they face Maryville at 7:30 p.m. at Billy Key Court.  Thursday's game will be the start of a three-game homestand for S&T, as it will also host Missouri-St. Louis next Saturday and Robert Morris-Peoria on Dec. 7.