Second half run propels Eagles to win over Miners

Justin Taylor

The Miners got out of the gate quickly Saturday afternoon, jumping out to a double digit lead in the first five minutes of play against highly touted Southern Indiana at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

However, the Screaming Eagles caught up by the intermission and then used a 15-4 run to open the second half to take control of the contest, going on to post a 73-57 victory over Missouri S&T.

The Miners ran out to a 15-4 lead by the 15:29 mark on a jumper by Justin Taylor and still had a 10-point lead three minutes later after a three-pointer by Taylor. Southern Indiana eventually erased the deficit and drew even at 25 on a pair of free throws by Norman Plummer with 5:52 to go in the half.

Taylor scored the last of his 15 points in the opening half when he drained a high-arcing three-pointer with just seconds to go in the half, putting the Miners in a 35-all deadlock with USI as the teams went to the locker room.

But while it was the Miners who got out of the gate quickly in the opening half, it was the Eagles who did so after the intermission. S&T took what turned out to be its last lead of the day on a putback by Marquis Jones to take a 37-35 lead. USI's Josh Huebner converted a layup on the next trip to tie the game again, then George Cunningham's lay-in at the 17:30 mark gave the Eagles the lead.

Cunningham's basket started a run of 12 straight points by the Eagles that was finally stopped by a jumper by Taurance Townsel, but Tyler Schnitker's three-pointer 24 seconds later gave USI a double figure lead that it would hold for the rest of the afternoon.

Taylor led all scorers in the game with 26 points, one short of his career high, while Aaron Hays also reached double figures with 10 points. S&T shot 48.1 percent in the opening half, but made only 31 percent of its shots after the break to finish at 39.3 percent.

The Miners held the Eagles to 43.6 percent shooting, but were outrebounded by a 41-28 margin and were guilty of 15 turnovers.

Missouri S&T (3-9, 0-4 GLVC) will be idle until next Saturday when it plays at Missouri-St. Louis in a 3 p.m. game.