ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T and McKendree hooked up in another high-scoring affair Saturday afternoon at Billy Key and it was S&T's finishing kick that led the Miners to a 102-88 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory in a matchup of two teams trying to break into the conference tournament field.

The Miners held a two-point lead with six minutes to play, then outscored McKendree 17-5 down the stretch to snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 10-12 overall 4-11 in GLVC play.  The Bearcats, now 9-13 overall, dropped behind S&T in the overall GLVC standings at 3-11.

In the last three meetings between the Miners and Bearcats, the teams had combined for an average of 191 points between them – and Saturday's game went right along those lines from the opening tip.

The Miners led for much of the first half, building as much as an 11-point advantage by the midway point of the period after Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) drained a three-point basket.   But behind the three-point shooting of Nate Michael and Darin Winkelman, who combined for seven of McKendree's nine treys in the first half, the Bearcats wiped out much of that lead and trailed by only four at the intermission.

S&T shot 57.6 percent in the first half, but saw McKendree take the lead early in the second half following a basket by David Franklin.  The teams would swap the lead eight times over the next eight minutes – neither team led by more than three during that stretch – before Simon answered a Justin Blanks three-pointer with one of his own to put S&T up 80-79 with 8:25 left.

After Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) made the second of two free throws to give the Miners an 85-81 lead, Michael hit a contested jumper to cut the lead in half.  Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) came right back and scored off Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights)'s school record-tying 13^th assist of the game to spark an 8-0 run to give S&T a 10-point lead and it would never look back.

Paulauskas, Miller and Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) – who led six Miners in double figures with 22 points – all scored during the 8-0 burst, then Zuikov hit a three moments after Michael made one for the Bearcats to put the advantage into double figures for good.

The Miners reached the century for the fourth time this season, but the first time in over two months as they hit on 62.2 percent of their shots in the second half and finished the day at a season-high 60 percent, marking the first time in exactly five years that an S&T team has reached the 60 percent mark from the floor in a game. 

The last time the Miners reached the 60 percent mark was on that date in 2012, when the Miners shot 66.7 percent in a win at Maryville.  S&T's 42 field goals Saturday were the most in a game since Dec. 4, 2003, when it had 47 in win over Calvary.

Besides the 22 from Holmes, S&T got 19 points from Paulauskas, 17 from Miller, 12 from Zuikov and 11 apiece from Simon and Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka).  Holmes, with 12 rebounds, had a double-double as did Paulauskas with 10 boards and Miller with his 13 assists.

Michael had a game-high 31 points for the Bearcats and Blanks finished with 25 as McKendree shot 46.6 percent and made 16 three-pointers in the contest.

With Saturday's win, Missouri S&T moved into a tie with Missouri-St. Louis in the GLVC standings and will face the Tritons Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. game in St. Louis.