ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team had a tough time finding the mark from the field Saturday afternoon and fell short to McKendree as the Bearcats captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup by a final count of 71-63 at Gibson Arena.
The Miners (8-4, 2-3 GLVC) connected on just 34.3 percent of their field goal attempts in the contest, preventing them from making up a six-point halftime deficit as a result. S&T was able to get to within five on two occasions in the second half, but a 7-2 burst by the Bearcats (9-4, 3-3 GLVC) pushed the lead out again and the Miners never got any closer.
S&T held the lead at times during the opening minutes of the contest, taking a four-point lead after a lay-in by
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) at the 17:24 mark. The Miners held an 8-6 lead after another basket by Young before the Bearcats used an 11-5 spurt to take a four-point lead of their own, then grabbed the lead again at 22-21 after the Miners rebounded a missed free throw and got a basket in the sequence from
Micah Johnson (Ankeny, IA/Centennial).
A three-pointer by
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) at the 6:01 mark gave S&T a 27-26 lead, but Carson Parker answered that with a three at the other end on McKendree's next possession to put the Bearcats up for good as part of a 7-0 run.
McKendree led 38-32 at the intermission, then opened the second half by scoring the first five points to take a double-digit lead. The Bearcat lead would remain in the nine-to-11 point vicinity for the next several minutes until S&T got it down to six on three straight baskets by
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville), then to five when
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) made the second of two free throws with 9:13 to go.
A putback by Young got the lead down to five again less than a minute later, but Parker scored five of seven points in the decisive 7-2 spurt that extended the margin back to 10 with just over six minutes to go. S&T had the lead down to six with a minute left following a three-pointer by Smith, but was unable to score again in the final 60 seconds.
Okeke scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Miners in the scoring column and while Young finished with a season-high 15 as both players recorded double-doubles in the loss, with Young pulling down 13 rebounds and Okeke finishing with 11. Froebe also finished with a double-double as well with 11 points and 12 rebounds as S&T had multiple players with double-doubles for the first time since Dec. 3, 2020.
Milos Vicentic, the second-leading scorer in the GLVC coming into play on Saturday, had 19 points to pace the Bearcats and Parker closed with 17.
Missouri S&T will open a two-game weekend on the road Thursday with a 7:30 p.m. contest against Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, Mo.
