BOLIVAR, MO  --  The Miners picked up their 21st win of the season tonight in Bolivar with a 78-64 win over Southwest Baptist. Ryan Sroka (Lake in the Hills, IL/Huntley) and Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) both had memorable games, with Sroka surpassing 1000 career points between S&T and Illinois Wesleyan and Williams hitting 1000 career points with the Miners.

The game was close at the beginning, with a couple of Sroka threes helping the Miners keep the game tied at 12-12. A three-minute scoring drought would follow, before the teams got back to trading baskets with five ties in the next ten minutes. S&T built a four point lead on two different occasions, but the Bearcats answered both times to keep the Miners from pulling away. A jumper by Williams in the final seconds of the half would put the Miners up 37-36 at the break.

A trio of buckets by Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon) early in the second half helped the Miners build a sizable lead, going up 45-38. Less than a minute and a half later, a Stovall triple would put the Miners up by ten and prompt an SBU timeout. The Bearcats took the next four points out of their timeout before the game got away from them, with S&T scoring 14 of the next 15 points to pull ahead by twenty. A three by Sroka at 5:11 would give the Miners their biggest lead of the game, going up 22 points and allowing the Miners to utilize their bench down the stretch.

Sroka had his second highest scoring game of the season tonight, leading the Miners with 20 points. He shot 7-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) had another good game as well, putting up 15 points on 11 shot attempts.

What's Next
S&T faces Rockhurst in Kansas City Saturday at 3pm