Miners hang on for road victory at Lincoln

Yamani Ball

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- It was Feb. 2, 2005 when the Miner basketball team had last recorded a victory outside the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building -- until Saturday afternoon.

UMR built an 18-point lead by halftime and was able to hold on for a 64-60 victory at Lincoln University. The Miners still had a 13-point advantage with under four minutes to play, but had to hold off a furious Blue Tiger rally to secure the first road win since an overtime triumph at Missouri Southern on that February night in 2005.

The game was tied at 19 after a basket by Tremaine Wilkerson at the 9:29 mark of the first half, then the Miners went on a scoring tear in which they outscored the Blue Tigers 24-6 to finish the half. UMR went in front at 21-19 on a basket bay Marquis Jones, which was the first of six straight baskets made by the Miners to take a 35-21 lead.

UMR continued to build on the lead as Joe Shardo hit a three-pointer to give it a 40-23 lead with 2:45 left in the half. Shea Wiemann closed the half by making three free throws to give UMR its biggest lead of the first 20 minutes of 18 heading into the locker room.

While the Miners shot 48.1 percent in the opening half, the Blue Tigers were held to 34.5 percent overall and failed to connect on all 10 of their three-point tries.

UMR held that double-figure lead until 9:23 remained, when Wilkerson scored to cut the lead down to eight at 51-43. The Miners, however, got the lead back out beyond the 10-point mark again and went up by 13 at 61-48 on a basket by Yamani Ball with 3:44 to go.

That would turn out to be the last field goal scored by the Miners, as the Blue Tigers scored 10 straight points to draw to within three with 1:02 to play. Ball hit a pair of free throws at the 47-second mark to extend UMR's lead to five, but Ralph Mata hit a pair of free throws with 37 seconds left to make it a three-point game again at 63-60.

A turnover by the Miners gave Lincoln a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but the Blue Tigers -- who finished the day at 2-of-19 from behind the arc -- missed three shots to tie the game before Ball grabbed the rebound of the third miss and made a free throw after a foul to turn it into a two-possession game.

Ball and Tyrone Davidson led the Miners with 12 points apiece, while Wiemann finished with 11 and Shardo with 10. UMR shot 40.4 percent for the game and held the Blue Tigers to 39.7 percent overall as well as to the low percentage from long range.

The Miners (2-2) will host St. Louis College of Pharmacy Monday at 7 p.m. before opening Great Lakes Valley Conference play Thursday at home against defending league champion Saint Joseph's.