LEBANON, Ill. – A complete team effort allowed Missouri S&T's men's basketball team to break into the win column for the first time in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Saturday afternoon, as the Miners held off McKendree for a 72-69 victory.

The Miners' CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) made two big defensive plays in the final seconds, getting the rebound off a potential game-tying three-pointer by McKendree's Logan Kohrmann with under 10 seconds left and then making a steal on a pass up the floor -- after the Miners had missed the front end of a one-and-one -- just before the final buzzer sounded to secure the victory.

S&T (3-11, 1-5 GLVC) got off to a good start as it scored eight of the first 10 points of the contest to take the early lead before McKendree came back with a 7-0 run to go in front for the first time.   After the teams swapped the lead five times over the next three minutes, the Miners went on a 12-0 run to take a 10-point lead at the 6:17 mark of the first half following a basket by Yahmir Muhammad (Rockford, IL/Auburn).

The Miners held the Bearcats (7-9, 3-4 GLVC) scoreless for nearly eight minutes during that run in taking a double figure lead in a game for the first time in nearly two months.

S&T carried a four-point lead to the locker room and continued to hold off McKendree's comeback efforts early in the second half.  Twice in the half, Hedgepeth – who led the Miners with 14 points – knocked down three-pointers after the Bearcats had the margin down to four; the second trey resulted in a four-point play that eventually allowed the Miners to push their lead back to 10 again with 12 minutes to play.

McKendree began chipping away at the margin, using an inside-outside combination to cut into the S&T lead.  Nate Michael's three-pointer with 6:39 left brought the Bearcats to within one at 60-59, then following a shot clock-beating jumper by Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), Alijah Thomas drained a three-pointer to tie the score.

However, Muhammad hit a jumper from the top of the key to put the Miners into the lead for good on S&T's next trip down the floor, then the Miners got two free throws from Nikola Andric (Uzice, Serbia/Gymnasium) after he grabbed an offensive rebound and key baskets from Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) and Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) with under two minutes to play to turn a one-point game into a five-point lead.

The Miners finished the day by shooting 49.2 percent from the field, but hit 59.3 percent of their shots in the second half.  Myers had 12 points and Muhammad finished with 10 to aid a balanced scoring effort for S&T.  Hedgepeth's steal to close out the win was his fourth of the game, among the 12 recorded by the Miners in the game.

McKendree's Nolan Gerling led all scorers in the contest with 25 points and Kohrmann added 20, but the Miners held Michael, the Bearcats' leading scorer on the season entering Saturday's game, to seven points.

S&T's win Saturday not only snapped an 11-game losing streak on the season, but also ended a 14-game string of losses in GLVC road contests.

Missouri S&T will host Indianapolis in a rescheduled contest Monday beginning at 5 p.m. at Gibson Arena.  The Greyhounds (10-5, 3-2 GLVC) lost 99-70 Saturday at home to Lewis.