ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team broke a pair of losing streaks in emphatic fashion Saturday afternoon, as the Miners used a strong overall performance to defeat Lewis 80-61 in their 2021-22 home finale at Gibson Arena.
The win ended a five-game losing streak and also put an end to Lewis' run of 15 straight wins over the Miners dating back to when the Miners joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference prior to the 2005-06 season. S&T rose to the 11
th seed for the GLVC Tournament that will start on Monday and knocked the Flyers out of the top spot in the Point Ratings standings in the process, keeping them from earning a first round bye that would have come with a victory.
S&T had lost seven of its previous eight games and did not hold a lead for as much as half of the game in any of those eight contests. The Miners changed that script on Saturday, holding the advantage for more than 30 minutes of the game as they improved to 11-16 overall and finished their conference slate with a 7-13 record.
Lewis (14-10, 12-5 GLVC) held the advantage for most of the early minutes of the game, taking a four-point lead at 10-6 after a three-point play by Deon Ejim just under four minutes into play. The Miners knotted the score at 13 on a three-pointer by
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) at the 13:03 mark, then took the lead for good when Smith drained another three just over four minutes later.
The Miners also began to shut down Lewis on the offensive end – the Flyers shot just 29.4 percent in the first half – and began to build their lead over the final minutes of the half as it grew to 10 when
Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Bloomington South) completed a fast break with a lay-in with just over a minute to play before halftime, where the Miners led by eight at the break.
Lewis stayed within striking distance at the start of the second half and drew to within five twice, the latter time when Bruno Williams hit a floater in the lane at the 14:11 mark. However, the Miners answered with a 10-0 run that began with a three-point play by
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) and ended with a Parker three-pointer at the 11:10 mark that extended the S&T lead to 56-41.
Froebe put an exclamation point on the win with a follow dunk in the final minute of play as the Miners shot 57.7 percent in the second half to end the game at 47.5 percent.
Smith led all scorers in the game with 22 points and also tied his season high with six assists; the 22 points marked the 15
th game in which Smith has scored at least 20 points this season. He got help on the offensive end from
Alex Strating (Wassenaar, Netherlands/American School of the Hague) with 17 points on seven-of-nine shooting from the field, Froebe with 13 points and
Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) with 11. Froebe also pulled down 13 rebounds to record his fourth double-double of the year.
Ejim led three Flyers in double figures with 16 points as Lewis finished the game shooting just 33.3 percent from the field and making only four-of-22 from three-point range after entering the game shooting nearly 40 percent as a team from beyond the arc.
The Miners will open play in the GLVC Tournament Monday when they take on Indianapolis in a first round matchup at 7 p.m. (Eastern time) in Indianapolis.
