CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – For the second year in succession, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team had a lead in the final seconds of an exhibition game at Southeast Missouri, but the Redhawks came away with the win after Alex Caldwell hit a contested three-pointer with nine seconds remaining for a 72-71 win.

The Miners (1-2), who were playing Friday's game as an exhibition contest, took the lead on Dulan Scott's (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) backdoor layup with 34 seconds remaining, but the Redhawks (2-2) worked the ball around the perimeter and Caldwell drained the three-pointer just to the left of the top of the key to give Southeast its first lead since a minute had passed in the second half.

S&T turned the ball over when it came back down the floor, but forced a turnover on the inbounds pass and got the ball in the hands of Nolan Lamb (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit North) – who was guarding the inbounder – but his 14-footer missed off the front iron as the buzzer sounded.

The Miners set the tone of the first half by hitting a trio of three-pointers early in the contest on their way to making eight in the first 20 minutes of play.  The first half featured six ties and six lead changes, but a pair of treys by Nathan Elmer (Nixa, MO/Nixa) late in the first half allowed S&T to overcome what was Southeast's largest lead of the period.

Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) hit two free throws just before the half ended to give the Miners a 44-42 lead at halftime, then after Southeast regained the advantage on a Quatarrius Wilson three-pointer in the opening minute of the second half, the Miners went back in front on a Dawson Berry (Centralia, IL/Centralia) basket at the 18:41 mark.

S&T would hold onto the lead for the next 10 minutes, building it to as many as seven points on a Fairless baseline jumper with 12:52 left.  Southeast tied the game at 60 with 8:52 remaining when Oscar Kao made the second of two free throws, but the Miners regained control on the scoreboard as Berry hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions following the Kao free throw.

The Miners held onto that lead until Caldwell drove the baseline for a layup with 47 seconds to knot the score for the eighth time in the game at 69.  Following a timeout, Fairless – who had five assists to go along with a double-double in the game – hit Scott cutting to the basket for the go-ahead field goal with 34 seconds on the clock.  However, Caldwell responded with his three-pointer that proved to be the game-winner 25 seconds later.

Fairless led all scorers in the game with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Scott finished with 18 points and Berry added 11.  The Miners shot 47.1 percent in the first half, but made only 31 percent after the intermission and finished the night at 39.7 percent, but did connect 11 times from three-point range despite playing with the longer distance on those shots being used at the NCAA Division I level this season.

Southeast shot 47.3 percent – but just 38.5 percent in the second half – as it got 16 points from Sage Tolbert and 12 from Caldwell.  The Redhawks had a 41-33 advantage on the boards, but the Miners committed just eight turnovers in the contest.

Missouri S&T will be idle until the day after Thanksgiving when it takes part in the Doubletree/Houihan's Thanksgiving Classic at Drury University in Springfield.  S&T will face Rogers State at 1 p.m. on Nov. 29, then takes on Southern Arkansas the following day, also at 1 p.m.