SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A slow start and a poor shooting night sent Missouri S&T to a Great Lakes Valley Conference loss Thursday night, as the Miners fell 80-58 to Illinois Springfield.

After the teams traded baskets on their opening possessions of the contest, UIS (11-5, 4-2 GLVC) rattled off 16 of the next 18 points to take a 14-point advantage before the game was just over six minutes old.  S&T (2-11, 0-5 GLVC) went one-of-10 from the field during that early stretch before Yahmir Muhammad's (Rockford, IL/Auburn) three-pointer broke the run.

The Miners were never able to get the margin under 11, however, for the balance of the contest, as they shot just 38.2 percent in the first half to the 60 percent mark posted by the Prairie Stars during the first 20 minutes.  UIS led by as many as 23 in the opening half and by 30 at one point after the intermission before the Miners had their best stretch of the night.

S&T had an 11-0 run midway through the second half, with most of the scoring during that run coming from Nikola Andric (Uzice, Serbia/Gymnasium) as he tied his career high with 14 points on the night.   Andric was joined in double figures by Muhammad, who also finished with 14 as he went six-of-11 from the floor and connected on two of S&T's eight three-pointers.

The Miners finished the night by hitting just 30.6 percent of their shots while the Prairie Stars were good on 52.7 percent of their tries.  One plus for the Miners was that they forced 24 UIS turnovers against a team that was held one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the GLVC.

Missouri S&T will return to action Saturday when it faces McKendree in a 3 p.m. game in Lebanon, Ill., prior to returning home for a rescheduled contest Monday against Indianapolis at Gibson Arena.  Monday's game will begin at 5 p.m.