ROLLA, Mo. – Fresh off a thrilling come-from-behind victory Saturday at Missouri-St. Louis, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team steps outside the Great Lakes Valley Conference for a night as it hosts Blackburn at Billy Key Court. Game time is at 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday's game will also be Celebration of Nations Night at Missouri S&T and the institution's student-athletes from outside the United States will be honored at halftime of the women's game with Westminster that will follow.
The Miners have won their last two games -- including a home win over Maryville last Thursday -- to improve to 3-5 on the year and will seek its third straight victory tonight against a Blackburn squad that will come in with a mark of 1-6.
In the two wins last week, the Miners got some big production from its bench, namely senior guard
Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) as he averaged 17 points in the two games. After scoring 15 points in the win over Maryville, Ellis matched his season-high with 19 points in Saturday's 85-81 win which included a key three-point basket late in the second half and two free throws with 18 seconds to go with S&T clinging to a two-point lead.
Ellis is one of three Miners averaging in double figures in the scoring column at 11.1 points per game, joined by
B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) with a team-best 14.6 a game and
Danylo Zuikov (Kiev, Ukraine/LaLumiere School) at 10 points a contest.
McLaughlin, who had a career-high 27 points in S&T's last home outing, is shooting 45.8 percent from three-point range and Zuikov has connected a team-high 14 times at a clip of 46.7 percent.
Rokas Paulauskas leads S&T with 8.6 rebounds per game, while
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) leads the Miners with 26 assists.
The visiting Beavers picked up their first win of the season last week when they knocked off Fontbonne 89-83 behind 22 points from Chris Davis, but fell Saturday at home to MacMurray 88-86.
Davis scored 18 points to lead the Beavers Saturday and leads his team in scoring with an average of 13.2 points per game on the year. He is the only Beaver averaging in double figures. Jamie Moore is the top rebounder for Blackburn with 5.3 a game.
