SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Similar to the first meeting between the teams 12 days ago, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team hit a scoring rut late in the first half that carried over to the start of the second, leading to an 81-62 Great Lakes Valley Conference loss to Drury Thursday night at the O'Reilly Family Events Center.

Following a stretch of the first half where the teams swapped the lead seven times, the Panthers took control of matters and carried that over to the first three minutes after the intermission to send the Miners to their third straight loss and drop them to 4-13 overall and 2-9 in the GLVC.

The Miners and Panthers went back and forth for the first 13 minutes of the opening half, with neither team holding a lead of more than three points until Drury went on an 11-0 run to take a 31-22 advantage with 4:18 remaining in the half.

Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne), who scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, ended the run with a lay-in on S&T's next trip down the floor, but the Panthers – despite shooting only 38.2 percent in the opening half – ended the period holding a 37-26 advantage.

Drury (12-7, 5-6 GLVC) opened the second half by outscoring S&T 13-2 to double the halftime advantage and the Miners could get no closer than 17 for the remainder of the contest.  S&T did connect seven times from three-point range in the second half, but the Panthers shot 48.4 percent during the second half and outrebounded the Miners by 14 over the final 20 minutes.

Fairless recorded his second double-double of the season as he had 10 rebounds to go along with his 17 points, while Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) finished with 14 points that included four of the Miners' 11 three-pointers in the game.

Asa Hutchinson led four Panthers in double figures with 19 points.

S&T had an impressive run end during Thursday's game, as it had held the opposing team's non-starters without a point for a period of 86:01 – covering two full games and parts of two others – that ended on a Brandon Emmert basket with 15:26 to play in the first half.

The Miners close out their three-game run away from home Saturday when they take on Southwest Baptist at 3 p.m. in Bolivar, Mo.