ROLLA, Mo. – For the first time in over 10 years, a long-time rival of Missouri S&T will pay a visit to Rolla as NCAA Division II power Central Missouri will face the Miners Saturday night in a 7 p.m. contest at Billy Key Court.
The Miners and Mules, who played together for 70 years in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, have not played each other in Rolla since Feb. 9, 2005. The teams did play last season in Warrensburg – the 153
rd overall meeting and first between the two since that February 2005 matchup – with the then-defending national champion Mules coming away with a 93-70 victory.
Missouri S&T comes into Saturday's game fresh off its first win of the season Tuesday when it held on to beat Missouri Baptist 76-73. The Miners led for the final seven-plus minutes of the contest and got some clutch baskets down the stretch after the Spartans had drawn to within a point on two occasions.
B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) recorded his first career double-double on Tuesday with career highs in points with 21 and rebounds with 15. McLauglin currently leads a contingent of four Miners in double figures for the season with an average of 15.3 points a game, while
Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage) and
Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) are averaging 13 a contest and Rokas Paulauskas is at 10.7 points a game.
Paulauskas is also second on the team in rebounding with eight per game – just behind McLaughlin's 8.3 – as the Miners are outrebounding their foes by four per game. The Miners hauled in 25 offensive rebounds in Tuesday's win and also scored 23 points off 21 Spartan turnovers.
S&T also got a big boost Tuesday from freshman
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's), who knocked down four three-pointers on his way to a career-high 14 points.
The Mules are off to a 3-0 start on the year with all of victories coming at home against NCAA Division II teams, including Wednesday's 77-71 win over Rockhurst. UCM, who has had balanced scoring in the early going, got a game-high 16 points from Spencer Reaves and 14 from Brad Woodson off the bench in a contest where it outscored the Hawks 26-13 at the free throw line.
Central has five players averaging between 10 and 11.7 points per game, led by Arizona State transfer Roosevelt Scott with his 11.7 a contest. Scott scored 19 points Saturday in a 25-point win over Concordia-St. Paul. Reaves is averaging 11.3 points a game and has a team-high nine assists, while freshman Jakob Lowrance is scoring 10.7 points a game and shooting 75 percent from the field.
Woodson and D'Marnier Cunningham are also scoring 10 points per game.
The Mules, who were picked to finish second in the MIAA this season, rank among the defensive teams in NCAA Division II, allowing their opponents just 61 points per game as teams are hitting just 38.9 percent of their shots and 25.5 from behind the three-point line.
