ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T tips off its Great Lakes Valley Conference season this week with a pair of games, beginning with Thursday night's home game against Maryville University at Billy Key Court beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Following the Miners' contest against the Saints on Thursday, S&T will head to the road Saturday to face the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 3 p.m.
The Miners and Saints are both looking to gain some traction in their 2015-16 seasons, as S&T comes in at 1-5 on the year and Maryville at 2-4. Both teams are also seeking their first victory of the year over an opponent from the NCAA Division II ranks, but in the case of the Miners, their mark has come against one of the toughest schedules in the country as the five losses have come to teams with a combined record of 25-3 through Monday's action.
S&T had one of its best showings of the season on Saturday in the second of its two games in San Antonio, but came up short in a 94-87 loss to then 13
th-ranked Angelo State.
B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) scored a career-high 26 points – with 21 of them coming in the second half – to lead four players in double figures as the Miners hit a season-best 13 three-point baskets.
McLaughlin leads the Miners in scoring with an average of 14 points per game, while
Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) – who returned to the S&T lineup after missing more than three games due to an injury – is at 10.3 points a game and Rokas Paulauskas is averaging 10.2 points a contest. Paulauskas recorded a double-double against Angelo State with 17 points and 12 rebounds and is third in the GLVC in rebounding with 9.5 per game.
As a team, the Miners rank second in Division II in offensive rebounding with an average of just over 18 per game.
Maryville has won two of its last three outings, the latest a 79-77 win Saturday over Hannibal-LaGrange behind 22 points from its leading scorer on the year, Marvin Grant-Clark. The eighth-leading scorer in the GLVC, Grant-Clark is scoring 18 points a game behind 42.3 percent shooting from three-point range and the ability to get to the free throw line, where he has made 37-of-39 attempts.
Max Mischkulnig is shooting 54.2 percent from the field and is averaging 15 points per game; he also leads the Saints in rebounding with 6.2 a contest. Mischkulnig had 20 points and four blocked shots in the win over Hannibal-LaGrange, while Forrester Sims had a 25-point showing earlier in the week against Iowa Wesleyan and is in double figures at 11.8 points a game.
Saikou Jallow, who scored the game-winning basket in Saturday's win, leads the Saints with 24 assists and eight steals.
After dropping its first two games of the season, Missouri-St. Louis has bounced back to win its last three contests to take a 3-2 record into its Thursday home game against Drury. The Tritons have shown balanced scoring in the early stages of the year with five players averaging between 8.4 and 11 points per game.
Brandon Marquardt and Joseph English are both averaging 11 points a contest, with Marquardt connecting on 16-of-28 from three-point range. UMSL is shooting 44.2 percent from beyond the arc – with Cortez Conners hitting nine-of-14 as well – and has made 27-of-57 from long range in its three home contests.
Alex Majewski leads the Tritons in rebounding with six per game, while Joshua Webster has team highs in assists with 16 and steals with seven.
