ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Despite getting off to a better start on Saturday afternoon, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team was unable to overcome a first half surge by Missouri-St. Louis and fell to the Tritons 76-57 at the Mark Twain Building in Great Lakes Valley Conference action.

The Miners (3-6, 1-2 GLVC) made seven of their first 11 shots from the field and used a 10-3 spurt, beginning with a pair of Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) free throws and ending when Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) made one of two at the line with 12:22 to play in the first half, to take a 19-14 lead.

However, the Miners couldn't sustain their hot shooting against one of the top defensive teams in NCAA Division II and saw the lead diminish over the next two and one-half minutes.  Yaakema Rose's jumper in the lane tied the score at 19 at the 10:01 mark, then the Tritons (12-1, 3-0 GLVC) moved into the lead for good on their next trip down the floor when Rose scored again after UMSL hauled in an offensive rebound.

UMSL took the lead as part of a 12-0 run and extended that surge over the next several minutes to take as much as a 16-point lead at 39-23 before the Miners scored the final six points of the half to trim the margin 10 at the intermission.

Trailing by 13 with just under 14 minutes to play, S&T made a run as Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) connected on three-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor and Scott followed that with a put-back of his own miss to bring the Miners back to within seven.  Scott missed the free throw to complete the three-point play that could have trimmed the lead to six, then Jason Towery hit a three-pointer for the Tritons after that miss to begin a quick 7-0 run that put the margin into double figures for the balance of the afternoon.

Newt finished the game with 16 points to lead the Miners while Scott added 14, but S&T connected on just 35.2 percent of its shots in the game and was also outrebounded by a 47-29 margin, which included 19 offensive rebounds for UMSL that led to 25 second chance points.

Rose led four Tritons in double figures with a game-high 21 points as UMSL shot 48.4 percent in the contest.  Towery added 15 points and Jalen Wilkens-McCoy finished with a double-double for the Tritons with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The Miners continue their four-game stretch away from home in the GLVC Thursday when they face Truman State in a 7:30 p.m. contest in Kirksville, Mo.