RENSSELAER, Ind. – Saint Joseph's used a pair of three-point baskets late in the first half to take the lead, then used an 12-2 spurt in the second half to break free of the Miners to take an 88-76 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Saturday afternoon.

In the midst of a first half that that the Miners led for a good portion of, the Pumas got three-pointers from Davone Daniels and Nick Jeffirs in the final 90 seconds before halftime to take the lead for good.

After the teams went back-and-forth over the first five minutes, the Miners grabbed the lead at 9-8 when Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) grabbed a rebound at the defensive end and went coast-to-coast to score.  S&T would eventually build a six-point lead with less than nine minutes to go in the half following a lay-up by Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy).

The Miners held the Pumas without a three-point basket until Eric Gillespie drained one with five minutes remaining in the half to tie the score at 30, then after both teams scored following a two-minute scoring drought, Daniels hit the go-ahead trey with 1:30 remaining to put Saint Joseph's into the lead.

The Pumas quickly extended the lead to 11 right after the second half began before the Miners started chipping away at the lead.  S&T got within five on a baseline drive and dunk by Scott at the 16:03 mark, then cut the margin to five two more times, the last at 66-61 when Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) knocked down a three-pointer with 11:35 left.

But following the Sarajlic basket, Daniels rattled off eight straight points to extend the Puma lead to 13, then Saint Joseph's answered a Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) three-pointer with baskets from Kindred Williams and Jeffirs to push the margin to 14.

The Pumas would lead by as many as 21 in the latter stages of the contest before the Miners hit four straight three-pointers down the stretch to cut the margin down to its final difference.

Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), who hit five of S&T's 10 three-pointers, led all scorers in the game with 17 points.  The Miners also got 14 points apiece from Scott and Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies), while Simon finished the afternoon with 10.

S&T made 42.6 percent of its shots in the game, while the Pumas – who made 54.3 percent of their attempts in the second half – finished the day at 50 percent.  Saint Joseph's (8-8, 2-4 GLVC) also had a four rebound edge over S&T in the game and scored 24 points off of S&T's 14 turnovers to just six for the Miners.

The Miners, who dropped to 7-7 overall and 1-6 in the GLVC, will return home to face Rockhurst Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Billy Key Court.