ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's basketball teams will open the second round of games against the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division this weekend on the home court, as the Miners and Lady Miners will play Thursday and Saturday at Billy Key Court at the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.

On Thursday, Missouri S&T will take on Maryville University in an evening doubleheader that will begin with the women's game at 5:30 p.m.; the men's game will follow at 7:30 p.m.  The women's contest will pit the Lady Miners, who are currently in second place in the GLVC West and a Saints team that is one game in back of S&T in third place.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis comes to town on Saturday for an afternoon twinbill on the annual Fort Leonard Wood Appreciation Day at Missouri S&T.   Military members – active, reserve or retired – will be admitted free along with their immediate families to Saturday's games with a military identification card, as the Lady Miners will tip off with UMSL at 1 p.m. and the men's game will begin at 3 p.m.

The UMSL game will also be the final Saturday home game for Missouri S&T this season; the S&T squads still have a pair of Thursday evening home games on the schedule during the final two weeks in February.

Women's Game: Lady Miners vs. Maryville

Missouri S&T comes into play this week sitting one game behind Quincy in the GLVC West Division with an 8-3 GLVC record and 12-7 overall mark.  Its opponent on Thursday, Maryville, is 7-4 in the GLVC and 11-8 overall and belted the Lady Miners 56-39 in St. Louis on Jan. 26.

In that game, the Lady Miners shot just 23.1 percent in the first half and 30-6 percent overall, while giving up 23 points off 21 turnovers in a game where S&T matched its largest margin of defeat.  Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) was the only Lady Miner to score in double figures in that game with 12 points, while Abby Duethman had 17 to lead the Saints.

Duethman leads the GLVC in both scoring and rebounding entering play this weekend, as she is averaging 17.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.  She recently became the school's all-time leading scorer and is closing in on the Maryville career mark for rebounding as she is just 14 away from that plateau.

 Brittnye McSparron is also scoring in double figures with an average of 11.2 points per game, while Shelby Miller is just short of that mark with 9.8 a contest and has a team-high 34 three-pointers.

Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) continues to lead the Lady Miners in both scoring and rebounding as well, bringing marks of 14.7 points and 8.2 boards per game into the game.  She currently ranks tenth in the GLVC in scoring, fourth in rebounding and heads the conference in field goal percentage at 54.1 percent.

Knar is averaging 10.1 points a game with a team-high 44 three-pointers, while Kyesha Hall (Dodson, La./) has boosted her scoring average to 8.8 points a game after posting a career-high 25 points in Saturday's 64-55 win over William Jewell.

Men's Game: Miners vs. Maryville

In the second game of their current homestand, the Miners will look to avenge a 78-57 loss to the Saints in St. Louis on Jan. 26, a game in which Maryville shot 66.7 percent from the field in the first half and finished with a season-high 14 three-pointers.  Armon Provo, one of three double figure scorers for the Saints on the year, hit four of the treys and led all scorers with 23 points.

Asa Toney leads Maryville (18-5, 8-3 GLVC) in scoring with an average of 14.8 points per game which ranks 12^th in the GLVC heading into Thursday's contests around the league.  Provo is scoring 12.7 points an outing and Gerald Shaw is averaging 10.9 points per game.

The Saints rank second in the GLVC in scoring defense, allowing only 62.5 points per game and are hitting just over eight three-pointers per game (third in the conference).  The three aforementioned players and Trae Pemberton have combined to hit 144 of Maryville's 185 three-pointers on the season, or 77.8 percent of their long-range shots.

Missouri S&T, meanwhile, was unable to overcome a slow start Saturday in its 89-74 loss to William Jewell, which dropped it to 6-12 overall and 2-9 in the GLVC.  The Miners fell behind by 18 points midway through the first half and was able to get the margin down to three early in the second half, but shot only 33.3 percent from the floor after the intermission.

For the second time this season, Mudi Eruteya and Michael Jackson (Wichita, Kan./Wichita East) both finished with a double-double, as Eruteya had 10 points and 10 assists for his sixth double-double of the season and Jackson recorded his second with 14 points and 11 rebounds.  Zach Ellis finished as the Miners' scoring leader Saturday with 15 points.

Eruteya leads S&T in scoring with an average of 13.2 points per game and is second in the GLVC in rebounding with 8.4 a contest and sixth in assists with 66.  Nusrath Khan (Morton Grove, Ill./Maine East) is also in double figures with an average of 11.1 points a game, while Ellis is scoring 8.4 a game and is shooting 42.4 percent from beyond the arc.

Saturday's Opponent: Missouri-St. Louis

Missouri-St. Louis' women come into play this week with an overall mark of 11-8 and 6-5 in the GLVC.  The Tritons, who play at Drury Thursday, are looking to post their first winning record since the 2005-06 season under first-year head coach Katie Vaughn.

The Tritons have a balanced scoring attack that is headed by Devonna Smith, who is averaging 13.3 points a game and is third in the GLVC in rebounding with 8.9 per outing.  Smith is shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and is getting help on both ends of the floor from Hazaria Washington, who is posting 9.9 points a game to go along with 7.4 rebounds and a team-high 18 blocked shots.

UMSL has split its last four games, beating Illinois Springfield in its most recent outing as Jessica Zavoral scored eight of the Tritons' final 12 points in the 60-55 win Saturday.

S&T beat the Tritons in a hard-fought 58-51 contest in St. Louis on Jan. 24, with Hall scoring 11 to lead the Lady Miner attack.  UMSL's Smith led all scorers with 14 points as neither team shot above 40 percent from the field.

In the men's contest, the Miners will face an UMSL team that stands third in the GLVC West at 6-5 and is 13-6 overall after winning twice a week ago.  After a tough loss in the final minute following a Jan. 24 win over S&T in St. Louis, the Tritons bumped off Quincy and Illinois Springfield last week, shooting 55.6 percent in the second half of the latter win.

Joshua McCoy leads the Tritons in scoring with an average of 14.9 points per game and in assists with 56, while Darian Cartharn is averaging 13.8 a contest; he had a team-high 18 points in the victory at UIS.  Aareon Smith is the top rebounder for UMSL with 5.7 a game.

The Tritons trailed at halftime in their earlier meeting with the Miners, but outscored S&T 49-34 in the second half of an eventual 76-62 win.  Cartharn had 17 points to pace UMSL, who hit 54.2 percent of its shots in the final 20 minutes after making just 28.6 in the first half, while Khan had 17 to lead the Miners.

Women's Game Notes: Lady Miners vs. Missouri-St. Louis
Men's Game Notes: Miners vs. Missouri-St. Louis

Women's Live Stats
Men's Live Stats

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