ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's basketball teams will open the second half of their Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule on the road Thursday evening as they head to Kansas City, Mo., to face Rockhurst University to conclude a three-game road trip.

Thursday's doubleheader will begin with the women's game at 5:30 p.m.; the men's game will follow at 7:30 p.m.

Following the games at Rockhurst, Missouri S&T will be back at home Saturday to take on William Jewell in a late afternoon doubleheader at Billy Key Court.  The women's contest with the Cardinals will kick things off at 3 p.m., and the men will tip off at 5 p.m.  Missouri S&T's volleyball team, who won the GLVC West Division championship in 2012, will be honored at halftime of the men's game.

Women's Game: Lady Miners vs. Rockhurst

Missouri S&T enters play this week tied for the lead in the GLVC's West Division with a 7-2 record – the Lady Miners are 11-6 overall – but is coming off a 56-39 loss Saturday at Maryville that tightened the division race.  S&T is tied with Quincy atop the GLVC West, with Maryville one game behind and William Jewell and Missouri-St. Louis now just two games behind the leaders.

Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) continues to lead the Lady Miners in scoring with an average of 15.1 points per game which ranks sixth in the GLVC.  Parks also ranks second in the league in field goal percentage at 54.2 percent and is fourth in rebounding with a team-high 8.5 per game.

Meanwhile, Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) is second in the conference in three-pointers per game as she has knocked down 43 shots from beyond the arc and has done so at a 41.7 percent rate that ranks sixth in the league and 19^th in NCAA Division II.

As a team, the Lady Miners are ranked 16^th nationally in field goal percentage at 43.8 percent.

S&T will face a Rockhurst team Thursday that is 4-12 overall and 2-7 in the GLVC prior to Tuesday's non-conference game with Avila, but one of those wins came last week when the Hawks belted William Jewell 67-46 in Liberty, Mo., a game in which Rockhurst held the Cardinals to 35.4 percent shooting from the floor.  Opposing teams are shooting only 40.1 percent against the Hawks this season and only one team, Wisconsin-Parkside, has shot 50 percent in a game.

However, the Hawks themselves are making only 36.8 percent of their shots from the floor, a mark that ranks next-to-last in the GLVC as does their three-point percentage mark of 28.9 percent.  Two areas Rockhurst has been very good in this year is offensive rebounding, where it ranks first in the league with 15 per game and in blocked shots, where it is second to Indianapolis with 4.2 a contest.

No Rockhurst player is averaging in double figures as play begins this week; its leading scorer is Kendall Hart with an average of 9.2 points per game.  Kara McFarland is the top rebounder with 6.2 a contest.

Men's Game: Miners vs. Rockhurst

Missouri S&T was 1-8 at the halfway point of its 2011-12 GLVC schedule, but opened the second half with a win over Rockhurst to propel it to a 5-4 finish and a spot in the conference tournament.  The Miners are again 1-8 in league play (5-11 overall) and are looking to start the second half in similar fashion as they did a year ago when they take on the Hawks Thursday night.

S&T has dropped its last two contests, the most recent a 78-57 setback at Maryville Saturday at the Saints knocked down 14 shots from three-point range and shot 67 percent in the opening half of the game.  The Miners had a good shooting day on their own part, hitting 51.4 percent of their attempts, but turned the ball over 26 times and that led to 37 Maryville points at the other end.

Mudi Eruteya continues to lead the Miners in all three major offensive categories, averaging 12.7 points, a GLVC-best 8.5 rebounds and dishing out 50 assists.  Eruteya also leads S&T in steals with 25.  Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East), who has 24 steals himself, is averaging 11.5 points a game while shooting 45.5 percent from the field.

Rockhurst picked up its first two GLVC wins of the year last week in dramatic fashion, taking a 72-70 decision at Quincy and a 76-71 overtime victory at Illinois Springfield.  The Hawks held off a final shot attempt at the buzzer for the victory over Quincy, then got a three-pointer from Liam Duffy with 48 seconds left in regulation time to force overtime and used an 8-0 run in the extra period to secure the win.

The Hawks rank last in the conference in field goal percentage at 40.5 percent, but are shooting 36.8 percent from three-point range and were 23-of-45 from long distance in the two wins last week.  Brandon McCann, the Hawks' leading scorer with an average of 13.4 points per game, is averaging 16.1 points and shooting 49.2 percent from beyond the arc in conference play.

James Robinson is averaging 10.3 points a game and leads the Hawks with 47 assists, while Cooper Beckett is the team's top rebounder with 4.8 a game.

Saturday's Opponent: William Jewell

Missouri S&T will open a three-game homestand Saturday with a visit from William Jewell, whose teams are both right around the .500 mark in league play heading into Thursday's home games with Drury.

After two ragged losses in which they scored just 41 points against Missouri-St. Louis and 46 against Rockhurst, the Cardinal women rebounded by sweeping a road trip to Illinois Springfield and Quincy last week.  William Jewell won the latter game in resounding fashion, shooting 56 percent in the second half and connecting on seven-of-12 from three-point range to outscore Quincy 49-27 in a 79-55 win.

Katlyn Wood and Chelsea Meeks, the top two scorers for the Cardinals on the season, were among four players for William Jewell in double figures in Saturday's win; Meeks led the way with 19 points.  Wood is averaging 11 points and 6.1 rebounds a game for the season and is hitting 42.6 percent of her three-point tries, while Meeks is scoring 10.1 points a game with a team-high 55 assists.

The Cardinals are 11-6 overall and 5-4 in GLVC play.  They are one of 11 teams in the 16-team GLVC with a winning record in conference action at the midway point of the schedule.

William Jewell's men are 8-9 on the season and 4-5 in the GLVC after suffering a 83-60 loss Saturday at Quincy.  The Cardinals shot only 38 percent in the contest two days after losing a triple overtime game at Illinois Springfield.

Dillon Deck leads the way in scoring with an average of 14.4 points per game and is fourth in the GLVC in rebounding with 8.2 a contest.  He is shooting 51.1 percent from the field, but the Cardinals have struggled from the floor during the conference portion of the schedule as they have made only 38.2 percent in their nine GLVC games and have not shot better than 41.7 percent in any conference matchup. 

William Jewell is also getting 11.4 points a game from John Taylor and just under 10 a game from Dwight Sistrunk.

Women's Game Notes: Lady Miners vs. William Jewell
Men's Game Notes: Miners vs. William Jewell

Women's Live Stats
Men's Live Stats

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