ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T ran into a hot-shooting Maryville team Saturday afternoon and suffered an 89-79 loss to the Saints at Moloney Arena, but despite the loss, the Miners were still able to clinch a berth to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

The Miners clinched the spot in the field after Missouri-St. Louis' overtime loss to Drury, as the Miners would win a potential three-way tie with UMSL and William Jewell that would get them into the 12-team field according to the GLVC office.

On the floor Saturday, Maryville used an 18-7 spurt after S&T had tied the game in the second half to take the lead for good to win for just the second time in its last 13 outings.

As was the case in Thursday's win at UMSL, the Miners struggled from the floor at the outset and found themselves down by 10 nine minutes into the contest.  But over the course of the next 11 minutes, S&T began to warm up from the field and took the lead back at 32-31 on a three-pointer by Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) with 1:34 to play in the half.

Maryville would tie the score by halftime and grabbed the early advantage in the second half, but the Miners would come back and draw even on a lay-in by Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) with 14:28 to go.  However, the Saints would go back into the lead on their next trip down the floor and were able to extend it to as much as seven on Jimmy Barton's three-pointer just past the midway point of the half.

Barton's foul line jump with 6:35 to play gave Maryville a 75-65 lead as the Saints made 15 of their first 22 shots of the second half and the Miners could never get into a good offensive rhythm in the second half as they fell to ….

The Miners shot 48.3 percent for the game, but the Saints shot 65.5 percent in the second half – where they outscored S&T 54-44 – and ended the game at 56.4 percent.

Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville), who connected on five of the Miners' 10 three-point baskets, led five S&T players in double figures with 17 points.  The Miners (11-13, 5-12 GLVC) also got 14 points from Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), 12 from Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) and 10 apiece from Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) and Miller.

Maryville's balanced scoring effort was led by Barton with 15 points as Maryville (9-20, 3-14 GLVC) had six in double figures in the game.

Missouri S&T will host Drury in its home finale Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Billy Key Court before opening play in the GLVC Tournament on the road on Sunday, Feb. 26.