KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In the same building where it had one of its roughest outings nearly one year ago, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team put together arguably its best performance of the 2021-22 season Sunday afternoon as it came away with an 82-62 Great Lakes Valley Conference win over Rockhurst at Mason-Halpin Field House.

S&T, who picked up its fourth straight win to improve to 6-5 on the year and 2-2 in the GLVC, lost a 21-point decision to the Hawks (5-8, 0-3 GLVC) in Kansas City last January.  On Sunday, the Miners turned the tables on Rockhurst, building a big lead in the first half and not allowing the hosts to get any closer than eight in the second half.

The Miners held the Hawks to 28.6 percent shooting in the first half and kept their leading scorer, Jake Auer, off the scoreboard over the first 20 minutes of play.  Meanwhile, after getting the lead at 11-10 on a Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) layup, S&T gradually built its lead during the half and then used a 10-0 run – S&T's 11^th run of at least 10 consecutive points this season – to take its largest lead of 36-18 at the 3:14 mark of the half.

S&T maintained its double figure lead until the 13:23 mark of the second half when Aidan Cleary connected on a three-pointer to cut the lead to 47-38, then the Hawks moved to within eight when Nick Volz made two free throws with 9:07 remaining.  The Miners regrouped with a quick 7-0 run to get the lead back to 15 and never saw the advantage drop under 12 for the remainder of the contest.

The Miners shot 50 percent on the afternoon and made 10 three-pointers, five of them coming from Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) as he scored a game-high 24 points.  Smith also added five assists and a blocked shot, while the Miners also got big games from Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) with 16 points and seven rebounds as well as Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), who hit double figures with 11 points and also made five steals.

Volz led four Hawks in double figures with 15 points.  Auer, who came into the game averaging 15.8 points and leading the GLVC in three-pointers per game, scored just five points and made one of his 12 shots from the field, a three-pointer that came with 6:22 to play in the game.

The Miners will return home to face Indianapolis Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena; beginning with Thursday's game, S&T will play five of its next seven games at home.