ROLLA, Mo. – After seeing a double-digit lead get erased in the second half, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team regrouped with a quick scoring spurt that was enough to help get it past Lewis Saturday afternoon as the Miners pulled out a 73-69 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory.
S&T led by as much as 14 late in the first half and by 13 three minutes into the second half before Lewis started cutting into the margin. The Flyers drew even with 5:23 to go and again with 4:04 left, but the Miners outscored them 8-1 over the next three minutes to go up by seven and held off Lewis over the final minute to improve to 11-9 overall and 5-8 in the GLVC.
The Miners started out hot, scoring the first eight points of the contest before Lewis got on the scoreboard nearly four minutes in, then extended the lead to 17-4 by the 12:02 mark after a pair of free throws by
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove). Lewis began to warm up from the floor and cut the lead down to five, but S&T made another surge late in the first half as it rattled off an 8-2 run – capped by a fast-break lay-in by
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) – to take its largest lead of the game at 41-27.
Lewis (11-9, 7-5 GLVC) got a basket from Beau Frericks right before the half ended to cut the margin to 12, but S&T was able to keep its lead in double figures during most of the early stages of the second half. The Miners went up by 11 at 52-41 after Williams drained two more free throws at the 10:55 mark.
However, behind Frericks the Flyers started cutting into the lead, outscoring the Miners 17-6 over the next five minutes to draw even at 58 after a short jumper by Gary Solomon. Frericks, who led Lewis with 20 points, scored eight of those points during that stretch to help get the Flyers even on the scoreboard.
The Miners got the lead back when
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) hit two free throws, then he made one-of-two on his next trip to the line before Solomon converted a conventional three-point play to even things up again at 4:04 mark. But Okeke returned to the line nearly 30 seconds later and made both attempts to start the run that put the Miners up for good.
After Solomon missed two free throws on Lewis' next trip down the floor, Young scored inside off an assist from Williams to extend the lead to four, then with S&T up by three,
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) drained a three-pointer out of the corner to double the S&T advantage.
Lewis kept chipping away at the lead in the final minute and got it down to two with 15 seconds left when Frericks drove to the basket and scored, but Young made two free throws with 10 seconds to go to make it a two-possession game and the Flyers only got one shot attempt off in the final seconds.
The Miners finished the game at 39.3 percent from the field, including a 32.1 mark in the second half, but forced the Flyers into 17 turnovers and held a slight rebounding edge over Lewis, who finished the game at 48.4 percent but just two-of-13 from three-point range.
Williams had 24 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and seven assists in just over 38 minutes on the floor to pace the Miners, who never trailed in the contest, while Okeke added 18 points and Young had 14 to go along with 11 rebounds.
The Miners will be idle until next Saturday when they face Maryville in a 3 p.m. game in St. Louis.
