WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. –
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) returned to the state where he began his college basketball career and led Missouri S&T with 25 points Saturday afternoon, but a couple of his teammates also hit clutch shots down the stretch to lead the Miners to a season-opening 75-72 win over Michigan Tech at the JustAGame Classic.
Trailing 65-60 with 5:34 to play, the Miners made an 11-0 run to take the lead for good. The run started with two free throws by
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville), then Williams scored on a lay-up to trim the Husky lead to one. About two minutes later,
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) scored on a put-back to give S&T the lead, then Young hit a three-pointer on the Miners' next trip down the floor to extend the margin to four.
The run concluded with a basket by Okeke with 1:53 remaining to put S&T up 71-65, then S&T had to hold off a late rally effort by Michigan Tech to secure the victory.
The Huskies, who were also playing in their season opener, trimmed the Miner lead to one at 73-72 with 39 seconds left on a conventional three-point play by Marcus Tomashek, but Okeke hit a shot near the lane with 15 seconds to go to extend the lead back to three. Tomashek then missed a potential game-tying three-pointer right before the final buzzer.
S&T built a five-point halftime lead on the strength of 16 first half points from Williams, who scored nine of the Miners' first 13 points and gave his team a one-point lead just over eight minutes into the contest. Michigan Tech regained the lead and held onto it until the Miners ran off eight straight to retake the lead, going back in front on a basket by
Manu Musemena (Liege, Belgium/) at the 3:22 mark and holding that advantage for the balance of the opening half.
The Miners extended that lead to nine early in the second half before the Huskies outscored S&T 15-1 over a four-minute stretch to go in front. S&T answered back, tying the game at 54 on a fast break lay-in by
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), but couldn't regain the lead until it made its 11-0 run later in the half.
Missouri S&T shot 46 percent for the game and got an additional 14 points from Young and 13 from Froebe.
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) added nine points and Okeke scored eight, all of which came in the last 6:26 of play.
Tomashek led all scorers in the game with 27 points, but the Huskies shot just 39.1 percent for the game.
The Miners will face Northern Michigan at 1 p.m. Sunday; the Wildcats defeated Upper Iowa 85-75 Saturday and will bring a 2-1 record into Sunday's contest.
