LIBERTY, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team closed out its pre-holiday schedule Sunday with its second straight win, coming from behind to pull out a 78-74 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory over William Jewell.

After William Jewell took the lead with 3:53 to play, the Miners answered back to tie the contest three different times over the next 2:26, the last of which came at the 1:27 mark when Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) put back his own missed shot to even the score at 74.   S&T's Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) forced a turnover on the Cardinals' next possession and was fouled on the play, sending him to the free throw line with 1:19 remaining.

Smith hit both free throws to put the Miners into the lead, then the Cardinals committed another turnover on an errant pass with 1:01 left.  The Miners were unable to convert that turnover into points, but forced another bad pass to the perimeter with 13 seconds left.

Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) was fouled on the inbounds pass and hit both ends of a one-and-one to give the Miners a four-point lead before Smith rebounded a missed three-pointer by Jewell's Carter Olsen as the Miners improved to 2-5 on the season.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair after the Miners had taken an early nine-point lead following Smith's lay-in that capped an 8-0 S&T run.  William Jewell (1-3) made up the difference and took the lead at 16-14 on two Mason Alexander free throws at the 11:46 mark, then the teams swapped the lead three more times before the half ended.

S&T took a 35-32 lead when Smith drained a three-pointer out of the corner with 3:33 left in the half to start a 7-0 run and maintained the advantage for the remainder of the first half, although Olsen tipped in a missed shot just before the period ended to trim S&T's lead to 42-39 at the intermission.

The Miners were able to maintain the lead for much of the second half, building it to 10 after Legardy sank two free throws with 13:43 remaining.  Jewell rattled off eight straight points to draw to within two before a Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Ridgeview) put-back on a miss by Smith stopped the run.

S&T pushed the lead back to eight at 64-56 when Dawson Berry (Centralia, IL/Centralia) knocked down a three-pointer and again at 66-58 on a Froebe lay-in 25 seconds later, but the Cardinals rallied again and caught the Miners at 68 on a three-pointer by Alexander at the 4:29 mark.  After the Miners missed a shot inside, Jewell took its first lead of the second half on a basket by Kobe McKinley with 3:53 left to play before the Miners staged their own heroics to pull out the contest.

Smith led five Miners in double figures with 17 points as part of a balanced scoring effort on the afternoon.  Parker added 13, while Legardy finished with 12 points, Froebe with 11 and Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) with 10.  S&T shot 46.6 percent from the field in the game and hit eight of its 21 three-point attempts.

Froebe also finished the game with five assists and a steal, while Smith was credited with three steals including the one that sent him to the free throw line for the go-ahead points.

Alexander led all scorers with 25 points as four Cardinals also reached double figures.  Jewell finished with a mark of 42.6 percent from the field and connected nine times from three-point range.

The victory marked the first time since the 2016-17 season that the Miners have won back-to-back conference games and first time in seven seasons that an S&T team has won consecutive road games in GLVC play.

S&T returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 3 when it hosts Illinois Springfield at Gibson Arena.