LEBANON, Ill. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team nearly wiped out a 16-point second half deficit Saturday afternoon, but the three-point shooting of McKendree proved to be its downfall as the Bearcats came away with a 77-68 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory.

The Miners (4-13) trailed 48-32 with 15:32 to play, but outscored the Bearcats (7-6) 19-5 over the next six minutes to get to within two after Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) made a pair of free throws.  However, Bryson Bultman's basket on McKendree's next possession, followed by a three-pointer by Oliver Stephen moments later, pushed the Bearcat lead back to seven.

S&T got the margin back to within four with less than two minutes remaining, but baskets by Bultman and Alijah Thomas extended the lead back to eight and McKendree was able to hold off the Miners from there.

McKendree entered the game leading the GLVC with 11.1 three-point baskets per game and used the three-point shot to grab the early advantage in the contest.  Froebe gave S&T the initial lead in the game with an early free throw, but Thomas hit a pair of threes to give McKendree a lead it would never relinquish.

The Miners trailed by one after a Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Ridgeview) three-pointer at the 12:47 mark of the first half, but the Bearcats went on a 10-2 spurt to take a nine-point lead by the midway point of the half.  S&T chipped away at the lead and had it down to two on a pair of occasions before the half ended, but a three-pointer by Brendon Gooch and a Thomas runner at the buzzer gave McKendree a 37-30 halftime lead.

McKendree outscored S&T 11-2 at the outset of the second half, which included three of the Bearcats' 14 three-pointers in the game, to take its largest lead of 48-32.  The Miners began working their way back, starting with a dunk by Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) as they cut the lead to two over a span of six minutes.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest), who led S&T with 26 points, came up big during the rally as he tallied eight of the points that included a put-back to cut the Bearcat lead to 53-49 with 10:44 left.  A little over a minute later, Froebe hit the two free throws to make it a one-point game before McKendree pushed the lead out again.

The Miners had two others in double figures as Micah Johnson (Ankeny, IA/Centennial) scored a career-high 11 points and Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) finished with 10.  However, the Miners shot only 40.3 percent from the field and made only six-of-19 from three-point range despite committing only seven turnovers on the afternoon.

Thomas and Gooch had 18 points apiece to lead McKendree and Jacob Donaldson added 17; that trio combined for 10 of the Bearcats' 14 three-pointers as McKendree shot 48.3 percent from beyond the arc and 52.2 percent overall.

Missouri S&T is scheduled to open its final homestand of the season Thursday when it hosts Southern Indiana in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena.