ROLLA, Mo. – Playing minus two regular members of its starting lineup, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team held off Lewis Thursday night at Gibson Arena – winning by a count of 61-59 – to keep itself squarely in the race for a spot in next week's Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.
The Miners (16-11, 10-9 GLVC), who clinched their first season with at least a .500 record in conference play since joining the GLVC in the 2005-06 season, were able to hold on after a video review after the final buzzer determined that a made basket by Lewis' Terry Ford came just after the clock hit zero to preserve the win for the Miners.
S&T heads into Saturday's regular season against Indianapolis in a four-way tie for sixth place in the GLVC standings, but in the Point Rating System that will determine the eight playoff participants, the Miners are still in ninth place through Thursday's action. S&T is currently 0.03 points behind McKendree, who currently holds the eighth spot in the PRS rankings.
S&T, playing without regular starters
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) – the GLVC's fourth-leading scorer – and
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette), got off to a slow start as it missed 17 of its first 21 shots from the field and fell behind by 10 just past the midway point of the first half. But coming out of a timeout, the Miners got a basket from
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) and a dunk from
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) to start getting back on track, then closed the first half on an 8-0 run to wipe out the deficit.
Okeke scored seven of his game-high 25 points during the run late in the first half that drew the Miners even on the scoreboard at 24, then S&T grabbed its first lead of the game on a steal and basket by
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) in the opening moments of the second half. The Miners would extend that run to 13 straight points after Froebe drained a three-pointer on the next trip down the floor, but the Flyers (8-19, 3-16 GLVC) came right back and drew even at 31 following two free throws by Vlado Zrnic.
Moments later, Lewis would go on an 11-3 run to take a six-point lead again before the combination of Okeke and
Alex Benassi (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) got the Miners back into the lead. A three-point basket by Benassi, followed by a conventional three-point play by Okeke that tied the contest at 42. Okeke would score again about two minutes later to put S&T back on top.
With the game tied at 50 with 6:46 remaining, the Miners outscored the Flyers 10-2 over the next three-plus minutes to take their largest lead of the game. Another three-pointer by Benassi – one of four he hit during the second half – put S&T into the lead, then the teams traded baskets before Okeke converted another three-point play down low with 3:30 to go to give the Miners a 60-52.
That basket would be the last field goal the Miners would score, as the Flyers ran off seven straight points and got to within one when Devon Vanderheydt drained a trey with 52 seconds remaining. S&T ran down the clock and missed the shot, but got the offensive rebound and forced the Flyers to foul. Okeke went to the line with 12 seconds remaining and made the front end of a one-and-one, but missed the second free throw.
Lewis came down and after Jamere Hill was cut off in the lane, he put the ball in Ford's hands on the baseline. Ford went up for a lay-up to tie the game, but the ball was still determined to be on his fingertips as the buzzer sounded and the made basket was waved off after the review.
Besides Okeke, the Miners got 12 from Benassi on the four three-pointers and 11 from Froebe to lead the way in the scoring column. S&T shot just 27.6 percent in the first half, but made 48.1 percent of their tries after the intermission.
Zrnic led the Flyers with 13 points and Vanderheydt was also in double figures with 10. Lewis shot 61.9 percent in the second half and ended the game at 51.1 percent from the field, but lost for the eighth straight time and for the eighth time in as many games this season in a game decided by three points or less.
Missouri S&T will close its regular season schedule on Saturday when it hosts fourth-ranked Indianapolis at 3 p.m. in Gibson Arena. The Greyhounds saw their 18-game winning streak come to a halt Thursday when they fell 64-57 at Missouri-St. Louis.
