ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team appeared headed to a happy Senior Day at Gibson Arena as it built a big lead by halftime, but was unable to hold off a hot Rockhurst team over the final 20 minutes as the Hawks rallied for an 81-74 Great Lakes Valley Conference win.

The Miners used a 14-0 run in the first half to take the lead in the contest and took a 15-point advantage to the locker room, but that lead evaporated in the first five minutes of the second half as the Hawks scored 17 of the first 18 points to take the lead back.

From there, the contest went back-and-forth for the next several minutes which included three ties and five lead changes.  The Miners regained the lead at 53-52 following a lay-in by Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) – one of the five S&T seniors playing their final game on Saturday – and S&T held that advantage for the better part of the next five minutes before Rockhurst took the lead for good on Chris Hamil's three-pointer with 5:36 to play.

After Rockhurst extended that lead on a basket by Quinton Curry on its next trip down the floor, Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) hit a 15-foot jumper to get S&T back to within a point.  However, the Hawks scored the next six points to push their lead to seven and held at least a two-possession lead for the remainder of the game.

In the first half, the Miners shot 57.1 percent from the field and held the Hawks to just 42.3 percent shooting and without a three-point basket.  S&T trailed 15-10 after a basket by Rockhurst's Curtis Lewis at the 14:36 mark in the opening half, but a jumper by Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) started the 14-0 spurt that was capped by a Nikola Andric (Uzice, Serbia/Gymnasium) dunk with just under 10 minutes remaining before halftime that gave the Miners a nine-point lead. 

The margin would grow to as much as 16 when S&T ran off another 8-0 run before the half ended, which saw S&T hold a 44-29 lead when the buzzer sounded.

However, the Hawks came out on fire to start the second half and ended up shooting 70.4 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes.  Lewis led the Hawks (17-11, 11-7 GLVC) with a game-high 23 points, while Curry scored all 19 of his points in the second half.

The Miners, who finished the season at 5-21 overall and 3-15 in the GLVC, had four players score in double figures, led by Scott's 16 points.   Myers had 15 in the contest, while Miller and CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) ended up with 10 points apiece.