ROLLA, Mo. – McKendree University men's basketball was outscored 51-35 over the final 18 minutes of regulation and overtime here Thursday evening to turn an 11-point lead into a five-point loss as the Bearcats suffered a hard-fought 75-70 setback to Missouri S&T in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at Gibson Arena on the Missouri S&T campus.
 
Thursday's game was the second straight overtime game for the Bearcats this week as McKendree fell 88-83 in double overtime at home on Monday to Southwest Baptist.
 
With Thursday's loss, the Bearcats fell to 11-7 overall and even their GLVC record at 7-7, while S&T improved to 10-11 and 6-8 in the league.
 
The Bearcats, who led 29-24 at the half, opened the second half with back-to-back treys from junior guard Aleksandar Davitkov (Belgrade, Serbia/Partizan) to push its halftime lead to 35-24 just 79 seconds out of the locker room. The 11-point lead was the largest of the game for either team.
 
S&T, though, would respond with a 16-5 run to tie the game at 40 following a lay-up by Dylan Singleton with 9:55 left in regulation.
 
Following the tie, the Bearcats would come right back and use treys from senior forwards Aleksa Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Cleveland State) and Luke Hensler (Okawville, Ill./SWIC) to retake the lead at 46-40 with 8:36 left in the contest.
 
That run by the Bearcats would ignite the Miners, who snapped a two-game losing streak with Thursday's loss, as they responded with a 13-2 run keyed by 11 points from Julien Smith to push out to a 53-48 lead with 5:43 remaining. Smith, who went 6-for-30 from the field in the game and tallied a game-high 20 points, was held scoreless in the first half after going 0-for-12 from the field.
 
Once again, the Bearcats came back and scored six straight points to retie the game at 53 with 4:04 left in regulation. The two teams would then trade free throws to again retie the game at 55 with 3:03 left, before Kaden Froebe would score three of the next four points to give S&T a 58-56 advantage with 1:47 remaining in the second half.
 
Hensler would hit two free throws on the next trip downcourt for the Bearcats to force a tie at 58, but Smith would give the Miners a 61-58 lead after he hit three free throws after he was fouled on a 3-point shot with 20 seconds left in regulation.
 
On the McKendree's trip down the court following Smith's free throws, Hensler would drill trey from the top of the key with 8.3 seconds left to tie the game at 61. Smith's lay-up right before the buzzer was missed to force overtime.
 
Hensler led the way offensively for the Bearcats as he tied a career high with 17 points. In addition to Hensler, junior guard Bryson Bultman (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) added 13 points before fouling out late in overtime, while Davitkov and redshirt senior guard Brendon Gooch (Belleville, Ill./SIU-Carbondale) each tallied 11 points in the loss.

With his 13 points, Bultman extended his double-digit scoring streak to 16 straight games and moved his career scoring total to 917 points and is now 83 points shy of reaching the 1,000-Point Club. 

In overtime, Alexander Strating scored the first four points of the extra session to give S&T a 65-61 lead. Bultman would drop S&T's lead to two at 65-63 following his lay-up with 3:07 left in overtime.
 
The Miners would come back and use baskets by Strating and Micah Johnson to push its lead to 69-63 with 2:03 remaining in overtime. Gooch would hit two free throws with 1:47 left to drop S&T's lead to 69-65, but Johnson added two free throws with 1:27 left to push the Miners' lead to 71-65.
 
Davitkov would hit two free throws with 1:10 left to move the Bearcats within 71-67, but Smith would make a lay-up with 51 seconds left to push the home team's lead to 73-67. Six seconds after Smith's lay-up, Hensler drilled his third trey of the game to cut the deficit to 73-70, but Singleton would hit two free throws with 23 seconds left to cap the scoring and seal the win.
 
In addition to Smth's 20 points, Strating also tallied 20 points and added seven rebounds as he finished the game 8-for-10 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Froebe and Singleton scored 14 and 10 points respectively.
 
In the first half, the Bearcats defense held the Miners to 32 percent shooting from the field and 15 percent shooting from the 3-point line to hold a 29-24 lead at the half.
 
For the game, McKendree shot 37 percent from the field and 36 percent from the 3-point line as they were 11-for-31 from long distance. S&T would finish the game shooting 41 percent from the field but was just 4-for-24 (17 percent) from the 3-point line.
 
McKendree held a 43-41 edge on the boards as redshirt senior guard Oliver Stephen (Edwardsville, Ill./SWIC) tied a career high with 10 rebounds, while Gooch added nine boards. Smith had eight boards, while Strating, Johnson and Froebe each had seven rebounds.
 
The Bearcats had 12 turnovers and 13 assists, while the Miners finished with eight turnovers and 10 assists.
 
After shooting a total of two free throws in the first half, the two teams combined to shoot 39 free throws after halftime, including 29 free throws in the second half as the teams were whistled for a combined 39 fouls, including two Bearcats – Bultman and Hensler, fouling out in overtime.
 
On the night, McKendree was 13-for-18(72.2 percent) from the line, while S&T was 17-for-23 (73.9 percent) at the charity stripe.
 
The Bearcats will look to put the brakes on its two-game losing skid on Saturday, Feb. 12 as they conclude their two-game trip to Missouri with a 3 p.m. contest in Springfield, Mo., against Drury. Drury fell to 7-12 overall and 4-7 in the GLVC following its 81-63 loss at home on Thursday to Southern Indiana.