ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T got off to a strong start Monday night, but finished even stronger as it recorded its second victory in Great Lakes Valley Conference men's basketball play with a 72-61 win at Maryville.

The teams were involved in a nip-and-tuck battle throughout much of the night – the game had 10 ties and eight lead changes – but it was S&T's finish that decided the contest as the Miners (4-10, 2-6 GLVC) outscored the Saints (4-11, 0-8 GLVC) 17-6 over the final 3:48 of the game.

With the game tied at 55 at the last media timeout of the second half, Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) made a pair of free throws to break the tie.  Maryville's Ross Ryan missed the front end of a one-and-one on the Saints' next trip down the floor and Fairless made two more free throws to extend the lead to four.

After a Maryville turnover, Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) got an offensive rebound off a miss and scored to give S&T a six-point lead, then CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) answered an Owen Long basket with a three-pointer from the top of the key to push the Miner advantage to seven with 2:24 remaining.

The Miners sealed the win by scoring eight of their last 10 points at the free throw line – a Hedgepeth steal and basket with under a minute to play being the exception – in a game where they made 23-of-25 at the charity stripe in the game and 20-of-21 in the second half.

S&T jumped out to a 12-0 lead to open the contest, holding the Saints off the scoreboard over the first six-plus minutes of play.  Maryville answered by outscoring S&T 19-6 over the next eight minutes to take its first lead of the game, but Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) gave the Miners the lead back by hitting a three-pointer on S&T's next possession.

S&T maintained the advantage for most of the remaining time in the first half, but Maryville went in front with two Zach Colletta free throws with 1:35 to play in the half and extended the lead to four at the intermission when Dezmond McDaniel hit a long three-pointer after a Miner turnover just before the buzzer sounded.

The Miners, however, regained the advantage by scoring the first seven points of the second half and then went back and forth with the Saints over the next 14 minutes, as neither team led by more than five during that stretch.

Hedgepeth led all scorers in the game with 24 points, while Scott finished with 20 and Fairless with 15 to allow the Miners to complete a season sweep over Maryville for the second consecutive season and snap a six-game losing streak in the process. 

Despite shooting only 37.5 percent in the game, S&T did connect on 45.8 percent of its field goal attempts in the second half and went four-of-nine from three-point range.  In addition to his 24 points, Hedgepeth also had six steals in the game and Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) recorded a career-high 11 rebounds as S&T held a 36-35 edge in that department.

Parker Long had 17 points to lead the Saints, who shot 41.8 percent in the game but fell for the seventh consecutive outing.

The Miners return home to host Rockhurst Thursday at Gibson Arena, with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 p.m.