Rolla, Mo. – The Men's Basketball team opened the 2020-21 conference-only season with an 86-72 win on the road against Missouri S&T. The Bearcats are now 1-0 (1-0 GLVC) on the year.
Brady Smith scored the first points of the game with a three pointer. He went on to score 8 of the team's first 9 points. With a 9-8 lead at the 15:43 mark, five different Bearcats scored 11 straight points to build their lead to 20-8 early in the game. After the Miners fought back a bit, SBU maintained a double-digit lead nearly the rest of the first half.
Quinn Nelson completed a three-point play with just under a minute left in the half, and
Nico Aguirre scored a layup with 7 seconds on the clock to boost SBU to a 41-27 lead at halftime.
Missouri S&T came out of the half strong, cutting the SBU lead to 46-40 with 14:53 remaining. A few free throws, a three pointer by
Brady Smith, and a layup by
Mitch Ganote helped SBU increase their lead shortly after. With 1:49 left in the game, the Miners cut the deficit to just 5, as SBU led 77-72.
Juan Morales then made a huge and-one basket and the team never looked back.
Mitch Ganote capped the game off with a three-pointer to make the final score 86-72.
Brady Smith had an outstanding game, scoring 26 points on 7-12 shooting from the field, including 10-11 shooting from the free throw line. He also had 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.
Quinn Nelson and
Joe Miller were the other Bearcats in double-digits, scoring 18 and 14 points respectively. The team out-shot the Miners 51.7% to 44.1%, and out-rebounded them 38-30.
This crazy stretch of 4 games in 7 days continues Monday as the team heads to Missouri-St. Louis on Monday with tip-off set for 3 PM.
