ROMEOVILLE, IL -- Missouri S&T Men's Basketball trounced the Lewis Flyers 90-59 on Saturday for the program's largest victory over a Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) opponent and their largest margin of victory over any conference opponent since 1999.
The Miners built a solid lead early, scoring 13 unanswered points to go up 13-2 on the Flyers. A couple of threes by Lewis ended the host team's scoring drought and cut the Miners lead to four at 16-12.
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) would contribute five points to another 13-0 run in response, extending the Miners' lead to 17. S&T continued to stretch their lead, getting multiple buckets from
Darron Henry (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Poly) and a three from
Garrett Hines (Nixa, MO/Nixa) in late minutes of the first half, extending their lead to 22 before the break.
Triples from Young and
Alex Benassi (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) quickly improved the Miners lead in the second half, doubling up the Flyers at 58-29. Lewis knocked down a few threes in the ensuing minutes but were unable to put much of a dent into the Miners' lead, only cutting their deficit to 24. S&T outscored the Flyers 14-7 in the final minutes of the contest, ending the contest with a game-high lead of 31 points.
The Miners shot 50.8% as a team, their second-highest percentage against a GLVC opponent this season. They had five double-digit scorers in the contest, with Young, Benassi, Henry,
Zac Brown (Collinsville, OK/Collinsville), and
Oliver Kokal (Chesterfield, MO/Parkway Central) all scoring ten or more. Kokal's ten points are a career-high for him, with the Redshirt Freshman shoot 3-for-5. Hines earned his first career start in the game, playing a team-high 27 minutes and knocking down two three-pointers.
What's Next
The Miners return home for games against Upper Iowa for Whiteout night and Quincy for Faculty & Staff Appreciation day next week.
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