ST. LOUIS, Mo. – For the second year in succession, Missouri S&T overcame a 17-point deficit to pull out a win at Missouri-St. Louis, taking the lead with 22 seconds to play and holding on for a key 69-66 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory Thursday night.

The win moves the Miners one game in front of the Tritons in the GLVC playoff race, as S&T improved to 5-11 in conference play and 11-12 overall.  They won after overcoming a rough shooting performance in the first half and outscored the Tritons (10-16, 4-12 GLVC) 51-33 after the intermission.

The Miners made just six of their 28 shot attempts in the first half and only one in the first eight minutes, a three-pointer by Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) that cut UMSL's lead to 5-3 in the early going.  The Miners were within one at 5-4 after Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) made one-of-two at the line, but the Tritons rattled off 10 straight points to extend their lead to 11.

S&T's second field goal of the half didn't come until close to the midway point when Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) drained a three-pointer that trimmed the margin to eight, but UMSL soon extended the margin to 14 and led by as much as 17 in the first 20 minutes, largely due to S&T's continued struggles and the Tritons' three-point shooting.

UMSL made seven three-pointers in the first half to just two for the Miners.

When the second half began, the Miners scored on four of their first five possessions to cut the Triton lead – that was at 15 at the break – down to 10 at one point, but UMSL got its lead back to 14 after a Drew Skaggs three-pointer at the 15:28 mark.

The Miners started cutting into the deficit, getting it within double figures on a Simon three-pointer and getting it to five moments later on two free throws by Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) with 11:05 remaining.   However, a three-pointer as the shot clock expired by Elijah Watson with 8:24 left made it a 10-point game again in UMSL's favor.

S&T trimmed the lead back to five as Myers beat the shot clock with a three-pointer off an inbounds pass with 6:35 on the clock, then after the Miners got a stop on the defensive end, Simon scored on a fast break layup to cut the UMSL lead to 55-52.

After Hunter Reine made one-of-two at the line, Simon got fouled on a drive to the basket and made both free throws to make it a two-point game.  Watson scored at the other end for the Tritons, but Myers answered with another trey to make it 58-57.

S&T missed an opportunity to take the lead with under four minutes to go, then the Tritons pushed the lead out to four before Miller hit two at the line with 2:28 remaining.  S&T then forced a turnover, but missed two more chances to draw even before Reine scored on a short jumper with a minute left.

Myers responded with a three to put S&T to within one, then the Tritons committed a backcourt violation with 44 ticks on the clock.  With 22 seeconds to go, Holmes got a feed from Miller under the basket and scored to give S&T its first lead of the contest at 67-66.
 
Holmes, who was fouled on the play, made the free throw to give S&T a two-point lead, then Steven Davis missed a three-pointer that was rebounded by Simon with eight seconds to go.  Simon made the first free throw but missed the second to give UMSL a chance to tie it – but Joseph English and Davis missed long-range shots before time expired.

Miller and Myers each scored 14 of their game-high 19 points in the second half, while Simon added 15 for S&T as they made 48.4 percent of their second half shots.  The Miners also had seven more rebounds than the Tritons in the second half and finished with a 40-36 advantage on the boards, as Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) finished with 12 boards.

Davis led UMSL with 14 points, while Watson had 12 points and 11 assists.

The Miners will finish their weekend in St. Louis with a 3 p.m. contest Saturday at Maryville University.