SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Missouri S&T men's basketball team was able to use a pair of second half runs to erase deficits, but wasn't able to complete the job as Drury – and Victor Nwagbarachoa in particular – made the plays down the stretch to give the Panthers an 82-76 win over S&T at the O'Reilly Family Events Center.
The Miners overcame a 13-point deficit it fell into in the first half, wiping it out by scoring the first eight points of the second half, then used a 8-0 burst midway through the second half and took the lead with 8:34 on a basket by
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest). However, a three-pointer by Malek Davis on Drury's next possession put the Panthers into the lead at 56-55 and the Miners never led again, although it did tie the game at 60 before Drury made a 7-0 run to take the advantage for good.
The loss ended the Miners' three-game winning streak and dropped S&T to 9-10 overall and 5-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while the Panthers moved to 5-9 and 2-4 in the GLVC.
S&T had a couple of leads in the first half, but never led by more than three at any point. The Miners grabbed a 15-12 lead on the first of
Julien Smith's (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) five three-pointers in the game, then moved ahead 26-25 on another Smith three-pointer at the 6:16 mark of the half. But the Panthers ran off 14 straight points following the second three-pointer to build a 13-point lead before S&T scored the final five points of the half to trim the margin to eight by halftime.
The Miners came out roaring to begin the second half, continuing the run as
Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Bloomington South) converted a four-point play,
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) scored following a steal and
Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) scored inside to knot the contest at 39. Myles Samuel answered back for the Panthers by knocking down a three-pointer and Drury ran off 11 of the next 14 points to rebuild its eight-point lead.
Trailing 53-47 with 11:44 to go, the Miners got back-to-back three-pointers from Parker and
Micah Johnson (Ankeny, IA/Centennial) to tie the game, then Smith gave S&T the lead again with a jumper in the paint with 8:34 remaining.
With the game tied at 60 after another three-pointer from Smith, Nwagbarachoa and Obi Okafor took over on both ends of the floor. Nwagbarachoa hit a three-pointer to put Drury back into the lead, then Okafor scored the next four to extend the Panther lead to seven. Okafor then hit a turnaround jumper with 3:17 left to give Drury a four-point lead before Nwagbarachoa assisted on a Dillon Carlson three and followed that by blocking a shot at the other end to halt a Miner possession.
Nwagbarachoa scored six of the Panthers' final eight points down the stretch, including a three-point play with 1:31 left and a basket off an inbounds pass with 37 seconds remaining to extend his team's lead to five. He led the Panthers with 22 points – 16 of them in the second half – while also pulling down 10 rebounds and recording six of Drury's 13 blocked shots in the contest.
Smith led the Miners with 24 points on the afternoon, while Froebe was the only other Miner in double figures with 14 points. The Miners shot 57.1 percent from the field in the second half – shooting 49.1 percent for the game – and went 10-of-20 from three-point range, but turned the ball over 17 times.
Missouri S&T will remain on the road next week for a pair of contests, beginning with Thursday's 7:30 p.m. game against Lindenwood in St. Charles, Mo.
