(ROLLA, Mo., Feb. 22)—Despite a game-high 30 points from senior guard Justin Blanks, the McKendree University men's basketball team dropped a 93-87 decision Thursday evening at Missouri S&T.
The host Miners placed six players in double figures in the scoring column and held off a late comeback bid from the Bearcats to collect the win. McKendree is now 12-15 overall and 3-14 in the GLVC. The Bearcats will wrap up the regular season Saturday with a road game at Quincy University. Tip-off is slated for 3:15 p.m.
Blanks connected for a season-high 12 field goals, four of which came from three-point range. He scored 20 of his points in the first half in helping the Bearcats shoot 54.5 percent from the floor in the period. It marked the second time in three games that Blanks topped the 30-point mark after going for 31 points in the Bearcats' final home contest of the season, an 88-84 triumph over the University of Missouri-St. Louis last Thursday.
Junior guard Nate Bethel came off the bench to score 16 points for McKendree, while junior guard Nate Michael chipped in with 15 points. Michael also surpassed the 1,100-point mark for his career with the Bearcats and moved into 41
st place on the team's career scoring list. Michael now has 1,105 points in a McKendree uniform.
McKendree scored the first seven points of the game on its way to a 9-2 run over the first 3:46 of play. Missouri S&T chipped away at the deficit and took its first lead of the night, 19-18, on a lay-up by Sebastian Ferenc with 12:45 remaining in the period. The Bearcats responded by battling their way back in front, pushing its lead to 32-28 after a lay-up from Blanks with 8:34 remaining until halftime. Blanks scored 15 of McKendree's first 32 points of the game.
Missouri S&T answered with a 12-2 run to take the lead for good at 40-34 with just under five minutes left before intermission. The Miners stretched the advantage to as many as seven points before taking a 48-43 lead into the locker room. Like McKendree, Missouri S&T connected at a torrid pace in the first half, hitting 55.6 percent of their tries from the field.
In the opening moments of the second half, McKendree outscored Missouri S&T 6-2 to trim the deficit to 50-49 with 18:33 remaining. The Miners slowly increased their lead and built their largest advantage of the game at 78-68 with just over eight minutes to play.
McKendree made one final run at the Miners in the closing minutes. A run of six straight within the final two minutes brought the Bearcats back within 90-87 with 17 seconds left. McKendree had to foul on the inbounds, and Missouri S&T's Allante Pickens sank two free throws to stretch the margin back to five points to help close out the victory for the Miners.
Ferenc led Missouri S&T (3-22, 1-16 GLVC) with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds. Chris Harris came off the bench to post 17 points, while Pickens contributed 17 points and a team-leading five assists. McKendree held a 39-36 edge in rebounding against Missouri S&T.
Thursday's game between McKendree and Missouri S&T marked the fourth time in five years that the winning team scored at least 90 points. The Miners won last year's meeting 102-88, which was also played in Rolla, Mo. McKendree won the previous two contest in the high-scoring stretch – 108-105 in overtime at the Harry M. Statham Sports Center during the 2015-16 campaign and 106-99, also in Lebanon, in 2013-14.
