ROLLA, Mo. – Despite making two scoring runs in the second half to grab leads over William Jewell, it was a late surge by the Cardinals that doomed Missouri S&T's men's basketball team Saturday afternoon as it fell 78-72 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game at Gibson Arena.
Following a
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) three-pointer at the buzzer from about 35 feet away to close the first half, the Miners took the momentum from that basket by outscoring Jewell 12-2 to start the second half to go up by six. The Cardinals rebounded to take the lead back, but a 10-0 run while trailing 51-47 saw the Miners go back up by six again with 8:41 to play.
However, the Cardinals rallied again and then took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Isaac Patterson with 5:08 to play. A few moments later, the Miners were down by one but missed a potential go-ahead shot in the lane, which was followed by a Trey Shannon three-pointer on Jewell's next possession to put S&T in a hole that it couldn't escape.
The Miners (9-7, 3-6 GLVC) had the lead for most of the early stages of the game, but never held a lead of more than three points at any point in time.
Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon),
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) and Froebe contributed 24 of the Miners' 28 points in the first half and the last three-point advantage came following a Stovall lay-in off an inbounds pass at the 7:35 mark.
Jewell (11-6, 5-4 GLVC) then proceeded to outscore the Miners 16-3 over the next seven and one-half minutes, going up by 10 after a Kobe McKinley three-pointer late in the half that came just before the Froebe three-pointer at the buzzer that cut the lead to 35-28.
S&T then came flying out of the gate after the break, scoring the first six points to trim the lead to one and then taking a 39-37 lead when Stovall drained a three-pointer. The Miners added to the lead on put-backs by
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) and
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) to go up by six, only to see the Cardinals erase the deficit and then go in front with their 10-0 run.
Down 51-47, the Miners got a dunk from Young to get to within two, then went back in the lead on another Stovall trey to start their own 10-0 run. S&T regained its six-point lead when Froebe finished off a fast break with a lay-up with 8:41 remaining.
After Jewell took the lead back, the Miners drew even again at 63 on a three-point play by Young with 5:30 to go, but Patterson knocked down the go-ahead three-pointer 22 seconds later to give the Cardinals the lead for good.
Stovall scored a career-high 20 for the Miners in defeat and Young recorded a double-double with a season-high 19 points and 12 rebounds to go along with three blocked shots. S&T also got 14 points from Froebe in a game where it shot 54.5 percent in the second half and 48.4 percent for the game, but was countered by 12 three-point baskets by the Cardinals.
McKinley led Jewell with 23 points while Jordan Jermain, who had four of the 12 treys, finished with 18.
Missouri S&T will open a weekend road swing on Thursday with a 7:30 p.m. contest at Missouri-St. Louis.
