The Miners came out on fire from long range, hitting their first four three-pointers to take a 14-3 lead in the first 3:32 of play. However, the Prairie Stars - who were coming of a 30-point loss Thursday at Drury - answered back by making an 18-4 run to take a 21-18 lead midway through the first half.
S&T regained the lead on a three-pointer by Nusrath Khan, then after UIS' Michael Fakaude scored inside to give his team the lead back, Aaron Hays drilled a three-pointer out of the corner to put the Miners back in front for good at 25-23 with 8:27 left in the half.
Hays' basket started a 15-6 finishing kick to the first half for S&T, which made eight-of-11 from three-point range in the opening half and shot 50 percent overall.
The Prairie Stars were able to close the gap to five early in the second half and still trailed by only six with 15:27 to go, but a jumper in the lane by Bryce Foster - his only field goal in the second half after he put 13 points on the board in the first 20 minutes - began a decisive 18-3 spurt that gave the Miners their biggest lead of 21 points at 65-44 with 9:07 to play.
UIS could only close the gap to 13 before the Miners scored the final seven points to push the margin out to its final differential of 20.
S&T had a balanced effort with four players scoring in double figures, led by Foster with 15 points. Tommy Pelczynski finished with 13, while Carlton Westbrook had 12 and Maurice Grinter 11. Foster also finished with six assists and two of S&T's five blocked shots, while Pelczynski had five assists and a pair of steals.
The Miners finished the day by shooting 53.1 percent from the floor, their second-best performance of the season. UIS shot 41.4 percent in the opening half, the first half this season in which the Miners had allowed a team to shoot at least 40 percent on their home floor, but held UIS to a 30 percent mark in the final 20 minutes and 35.6 percent overall.
Fakuade, a transfer from Northern Illinois, recorded his third straight double-double for the Prairie Stars (3-4, 0-2 GLVC) with 17 points and 10 rebounds, but was held to five points and three boards after the intermission. Lester Hart also finished in double figures with 15, but had only five after the intermission as well.
The victory gives the Miners, 5-2 overall, a 2-0 mark in GLVC play and their first 2-0 start to a conference season since the 2000-01 campaign when they were a part of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
Missouri S&T will return to action next Saturday when it faces Harding University in Searcy, Ark. Game time will be at 7:30 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment