RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Missouri S&T had a strong second half performance Friday against seventh-ranked California Baptist, but it wasn't enough to overcome a sluggish opening stanza as the Miners dropped a 73-62 decision on the first night of the CBU Thanksgiving Classic.

The Miners (1-3) shot 58.6 percent in the second half, held the Lancers (6-0) to just 28.2 percent from the floor and outscored CBU 38-30 over the final 20 minutes.  However, S&T entered the second half down by 19 after getting blitzed from long range in the first half as the Lancers connected on nine three-pointers in the first 20 minutes.

S&T held a couple of leads in the early stages of play, taking an 11-10 lead on a lay-in by Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) at the 13:07 mark and again at 13-12 on a basket by Romain Louiserre (La Ferte Alais, France/Fredrick Fays) nearly two minutes later.

However, the Lancers took the advantage back on a three-pointer by Ty Rowell, which sparked a 12-0 run to give CBU an 11-point lead at 24-13 by the midway point of the half.

The Miners did get the lead back down to four with seven minutes to go in the half after Chris Harris (Antioch, IL/Lake Forest Academy) made one of two at the line, but S&T was outscored 19-4 over the balance of the half and trailed 43-24 after Cory Lange's buzzer-beating three-pointer to close the period.

S&T came out strong in the second half, making seven of its first eight shots and cutting the lead to 13 in the early minutes.  CBU did get the margin back to as much as 21, but the Miners cut it back to 13 on three occasions and eventually got it down to 11 with under three minutes to play, which would be the final margin in the contest.

Harris led the Miners with 22 points and Sarajlic finished with 17, including five of S&T's seven three-pointers in the contest.  The Miners also got nine points from Sebastian Ferenc (Zgierz, Poland/).

Bul Kuol led the Lancers with 17 as he also connected five times from beyond the arc; CBU made 14 three-pointers in the game and had three players in double figures.  The Miners did hold Kalidou Diouf, who was leading the Lancers in scoring heading into the game with an averaging of nearly 18 points a game, to just seven points on the night.

Missouri S&T will complete its three-game road trip Saturday when it faces Academy of Art in a 7 p.m. (Central time) contest in Riverside.