EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – A big first half run turned an early Missouri S&T lead into a deficit and Southern Illinois Edwardsville was able to maintain that advantage for the remainder of the day to defeat the Miners 79-66 Sunday afternoon.

The Miners, who were playing Sunday's game as a discretionary exhibition contest, got out of the gate fast, scoring nine of the game's first 11 points as Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) scored the first six points of the game and Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) scored the other three on a long-range basket at the 17:43 mark.  S&T continued to hold the lead for the next four minutes until Cameron Williams' three-pointer tied the score as 12.

Williams' trey came as part of the Cougars' 22-0 run, which turned a five-point Miner lead into a 17-point deficit that ended on a lay-in by Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) that ended a drought that lasted nine minutes.  SIUE's lead stayed in double figures for the balance of the first half, ending the period with a 41-27 lead.

The Miners tried to chip away at the Cougar lead in the second half, getting the margin down to 11 following a Myers three-pointer at the 13:24 mark, then down to 10 a little over a minute later when CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) made the first of two free throws.

However, S&T couldn't get any closer than 10 as SIUE pushed the margin back out to as much as 22 in the final minutes before the Miners closed the game on a 10-1 spurt to put the final difference at 13.

Scott and Yahmir Muhammad (Rockford, IL/Auburn) had 14 points apiece to lead S&T, while Myers had 12 on the afternoon as he connected on four-of-eight from three-point land.  The Miners shot just 37.3 percent from the field and made six-of-20 from three-point range.

SIUE (4-8) got 16 points from Williams, while Tyreese Williford and Brandon Jackson had 13 points apiece.  The Cougars shot 53.6 percent from the field and really hurt the Miners inside, scoring 46 points in the paint.

Missouri S&T returns to Great Lakes Valley Conference the next time it takes the floor, which will be Thursday when it faces Rockhurst in a 7:30 p.m. game in Kansas City, Mo.