ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team blitzed Lewis with a 57.1 percent shooting performance in the first half Saturday afternoon, building a 16-point lead in the process and going on to defeat the Flyers 87-75 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at Neil Carey Arena.
Saturday's victory was the first in nine tries for the Miners over Lewis in Romeoville and thanks to other results around the GLVC during the day, has moved the Miners to within one game of the lead in the conference standings as they vaulted to 11-5 overall and 5-3 in the GLVC.
The game started a little auspiciously for the Miners as they didn't score on any of their first four possessions and Lewis grabbed a quick 4-0 lead. But after a basket by
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) – who was playing close to his hometown on Saturday – got S&T on the scoreboard, the Miners got on a roll that lasted for the balance of the opening half.
Okeke's basket started a run where the Miners scored on nine straight possessions, a run that ended with an
Alex Benassi (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) fast break layup that gave S&T a 20-12 lead by the 12:44 mark. After the string of successful possessions ended, the Miners got another basket from Okeke the next time they got the ball to go up by nine and would extend their lead into double figures just over a minute later on a steal and basket by
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove).
Before the first half ended, the Miners outscored Lewis (5-10, 1-7 GLVC) 9-2 to close the half with a 47-31 lead as they made 20 of their 35 field goal attempts in the first 20 minutes.
Lewis opened the second half by making five of its first six shots and cut the S&T lead to 10 in the process, then got it down to nine moments later on a three-pointer by Devon Vanderheydt. However, the Flyers couldn't get any closer than eight in the second half – doing so following a three-pointer by Utku Kurtulus – but Okeke answered with a three-point play on S&T's next trip down the floor and Lewis only got the lead into single digits once from that point on.
The Miners were able to deliver the final dagger with under seven minutes remaining, as they got a tip-in by
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette), followed by a from Williams and a jumper by
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) that gave S&T its largest lead of the game at 79-61.
Okeke and Williams had 19 points apiece to lead S&T, while Froebe finished the afternoon with 17 and added seven rebounds and four assists. The Miners' fourth player in double figures was
Micah Johnson (Ankeny, IA/Centennial), who recorded a season-high 10 points in the victory.
Lewis had two in double figures, as Beau Frericks finished with a game-high 24 points and Vanderheydt added 16. The Flyers shot 57.4 percent on the afternoon, but turned the ball over 18 times and made only four shots from beyond the arc.
Missouri S&T concludes its three-game road trip Monday with a game at Illinois Springfield that will get underway at 2 p.m.
