ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T first road venture into the Great Lakes Valley Conference's East Division takes place this weekend and on tap for the Miners are a pair of games against teams ranked among the top eight in the latest NABC/Division II rankings.

The first of those contests comes up Thursday evening when the Miners face eighth-ranked Southern Indiana in Evansville, Ind., then the Miners head down the road to Louisville, Ky., for a Saturday afternoon matchup against Bellarmine, who was ranked second in the new poll released Tuesday.

S&T will head into Thursday's match looking to snap a two-game losing streak and win for the first time in GLVC play after dropping home contests last weekend to 16^th-ranked Indianapolis and Saint Joseph's. The Miners, who still rank second in NCAA Division II in scoring, could not overcome late runs in both games as they fell to 5-6 overall and 0-3 in the GLVC.

Bryce Foster (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) continues to lead the Miners in scoring and is second in the conference with his average of 21.4 points, while Mudiaga Eruteya (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame) is fifth in the GLVC in the scoring department with an average of 19.7 points a game. Eruteya had a 22-point, nine-rebound performance in Sunday's loss to Saint Joseph's as the Miners shot a season-best 55.7 percent from the field.

As a team, the Miners come into the week averaging 96 points per game, second to West Liberty – the nation's top-ranked team who is scoring 114.1 points a contest.

Southern Indiana will bring a 10-0 record and 2-0 GLVC mark into Thursday's game after sweeping a weekend road trip with wins over Rockhurst and William Jewell. USI is leading the nation in rebounding, grabbing 18.7 more boards than its opponents per game and is fourth in field goal percentage at 53.6 percent.

Much of that is due to the play of forward Aaron Nelson, who has recorded a double-double in all 10 games this season and leads NCAA Division II with an average of 13.5 rebounds per game to go along with a 21-point per game average that ranks third in the GLVC. He is among five USI players averaging in double figures with the other four – headed by forward Gavin Schumann – averaging between 10.5 and 11.9 points per contest.

The Screaming Eagles are 10-0 for the third time in the last five years under head coach Rodney Watson, but the last time they were 10-0 to start a season, the Miners went into Evansville and stunned USI 62-55 in the last meeting between the teams two seasons ago.

Bellarmine also owns marks of 10-0 and 2-0 heading into play this week, which will begin for it on Thursday when it hosts third-ranked Drury. The Knights also knocked off William Jewell and Rockhurst over the weekend, winning 92-64 at Rockhurst Sunday behind 20 points from Keisten Jones.

Jones leads a balanced scoring attack for the Knights with an average of 17.6 points per game and is shooting 70.6 percent from the floor, while Jake Thelen is shooting 78.2 percent and scoring just under 15 points a game while leading them in rebounding with 8.3 a contest. Bellarmine leads the NCAA Division II ranks in field goal percentage at 55.8 percent at the start of play this week.

The Knights, ranked second in this week's poll, have reached the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional championship game in four of the last five seasons and won the national championship in 2011 in Jones' freshman season.

Game Notes: Miners vs. #8 Southern Indiana

Game Notes: Miners vs. #2 Bellarmine 

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