ROLLA, Mo. – For the second straight game, Missouri S&T had five players score in double figures and that balanced effort also led to the first win of the season, as the Miners downed Principia 91-60 Saturday afternoon at Gibson Arena.

The Miners (1-3) never trailed in the contest, taking the initial lead on a Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Bloomington South) three-point basket 44 seconds into play and after Principia (2-2) tied the score on a Payton Sellers trey, S&T went on a 10-0 run and never looked back.

S&T shot 50 percent in the first half of play and forced 11 Panther turnovers, which it turned into 15 points at the other end.  In addition, the Miners controlled matters in the paint throughout the afternoon, outscoring Principia 26-12 in the first half and finishing with 44 points down low.

Not only did the Miners end up causing Principia to turn the ball over 25 times, it got 18 of them as the result of steals as Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) finished with four and Dylan Singleton (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) and Alex Strating (Wassenaar, Netherlands/American School of the Hague) all had three apiece.  S&T also had 24 assists on its 35 field goals, led by six from Froebe and five from Strating.

The Miners led by as much as 24 in the first half and built the lead to as many as 33 points before the midway point of the second half as they won their first game by at least a double figure margin since Jan. 20, 2020 when they won 72-61 at Maryville.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest), the Miners' leading scorer on the season entering play on Saturday, led S&T with 19 points.  Parker finished the afternoon with 15, while Froebe had 13, Strating 12 and Saheem Anthony (Brooklyn, NY/Westinghouse) reached double figures for the first time as a Miner with 10 points.

The Miners also finished with a 43-41 advantage on the boards, as Parker, Froebe and Anthony all had seven apiece.  S&T ended up at 48.6 percent from the field for the game and connected 11 times from three-point range in 34 attempts.

Clark Davidson led Principia with 18 points, as the Panthers shot just 36.8 percent for the game.

Missouri S&T will open its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Monday when it hosts Drury at 7:30 p.m. at Gibson Arena.  The Panthers come into the conference opener with a 2-4 record after suffering an 89-62 loss Saturday to Evangel.