ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team was able to answer a mid-game surge by Maryville with a key second half run, allowing it to come away with an 87-83 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory over the Saints Thursday night at Gibson Arena.
After leading by 10 in the first half, the Saints were able to tie up the game by halftime and took as much as an eight-point lead early in the second half. However, thanks to a 12-2 run by S&T, the Miners regained the lead by the 13:13 mark and then used another 8-1 surge later in the period to regain their 10-point advantage before holding off Maryville in the final minutes.
The opening half was a defensive grind for the first several minutes until S&T (9-4, 3-2 GLVC) ran off a 9-0 spurt to take its first lead with nearly five minutes gone. The Miners would eventually build their advantage to 29-19 following a put-back by
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) with 5:37 to go, but Maryville (10-4, 3-3 GLVC) wiped out the S&T lead before the half ended in a 35-all tie.
The Saints proceeded to score 12 of the first 16 points after the intermission to take their largest lead of the game at 47-39 and still led by seven before S&T rattled off eight straight points to go back in front. The Miners regained the edge following a three-pointer out of the corner by
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), then S&T would take the lead for good at 56-54 after Froebe made a steal and fed
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) for a dunk that was part of another 8-0 run.
S&T eventually built its lead back to 10 twice, first after a basket by
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) and then after another trey by Froebe that put the Miners up 75-65 with 4:19 to play. Maryville began to cut into the margin and had it down to three with 1:38 left after a driving lay-in by Dewayne Vass, but Williams knocked down a foul line jumper on S&T's next trip down the floor to push the lead back to five.
Maryville had the lead down to three one more time in the final minute, but S&T went eight-of-10 at the free throw line over the final 45 seconds to hold off the visitors.
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) scored a season-high 28 points to pace the Miners, while Froebe matched his career best with 22. The Miners, who also had Williams in double figures with 13, shot 51.7 percent from the field in the second half and ended the contest at 46.6 percent. S&T also blocked seven shots in the contest, three of them by
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) who also led the way with nine rebounds.
Vass had 21 points and Ben Palacios had 20 to lead Maryville in the scoring department.
Missouri S&T will close out its three-game homestand Saturday when it hosts McKendree at 3 p.m. at Gibson Arena.
