ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T jumped out to a six-point lead to start overtime Thursday night against Great Lakes Valley Conference leader Indianapolis, but was unable to score over the final 3:49 of the extra period as the Greyhounds rallied to knock off the Miners 71-68 in a defensive battle at Gibson Arena.
The Miners and Greyhounds went into overtime tied at 62, then scored the first six points of the extra period on two
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) free throws and baskets by
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) and
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) in the first 71 seconds of overtime to take the six-point lead and force a UIndy timeout. However, the Greyhounds scored the nine points that followed, tying the score on a pair of Jesse Bingham free throws with 1:38 remaining and getting the go-ahead basket on Zac Szul's three-pointer out of the corner with a shade under a minute to play.
S&T (10-9, 4-8 GLVC) missed a shot on its next trip down the floor before the Greyhounds (13-6, 9-2 GLVC) missed two free throws to keep the door open, but a turnover on the possession that followed sealed the Miners' fate.
The Miners led for a majority of the opening half, going in front early on following an
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) three-point basket and building the margin to as much as 11 on two occasions later in the half.
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) – who scored his 1,000
th career point as a Miner in the contest – made a steal and a dunk to give the Miners a 28-17 lead, then
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) answered a UIndy basket with a foul line jumper that restored the 11-point advantage.
S&T led by 10 with under three minutes to go in the half, but the Greyhounds trimmed the margin to three by halftime. UIndy grabbed its first lead since the opening moments four minutes into the second half on a Sean Craig three-pointer before the contest turned into a back-and-forth affair for the next several minutes.
A three-pointer by Paul Zilinskas gave UIndy a 57-54 lead with 4:53 to go, but the Miners came back and eventually tied it when Smith knocked down a three with just over two minutes to go. UIndy went back in the lead on a three-point play by Jarvis Walter at the 1:20 mark, but Young made one of two at the line and Okeke later hit both ends of a one-and-one with 36 seconds left to tie it.
The Miners forced a missed shot on UIndy's next trip down the floor and had the ball with a chance to win it, but Williams' shot at the buzzer was off the mark to send the game into overtime.
Both teams struggled to find the mark from the field, as the Greyhounds made only 36.8 percent of their shots and S&T hit on just 35.8 percent of their tries. UIndy made only 29.4 percent of its shots in the second half, but the Miners connected on just 29.6 percent in that same span.
S&T did have five players in double figures, led by Smith with 16 points. Froebe and Okeke finished with 12 points apiece, while Williams ended the game with 10 and Young with nine.
Bingham led the Greyhounds – who had four in double figures – with 16 points.
Missouri S&T will play host to Lewis Saturday at Gibson Arena beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday's game will be the S&T's Coaches vs. Cancer, with the first 100 S&T students receiving t-shirts upon entry to the arena.
