ROLLA, Mo. – The top two three-point shooting teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference will visit Billy Key Court this week as Missouri S&T opens a challenging four-game homestand.
The Miners open the upcoming stretch Thursday when they host Truman State at 7:30 p.m., then face off against Quincy Saturday in a 3 p.m. contest. S&T, who is 8-10 overall and 4-5 in the GLVC, will be taking on four teams with a combined record of 56-19 in this homestand as 11
th-ranked Bellarmine and Southern Indiana will come to town next week.
S&T broke a five-game losing streak Saturday by holding Rockhurst to 38.6 percent shooting in a 73-62 win in Kansas City. The shooting mark was the lowest posted by a Miner opponent this season as S&T overcame a Rockhurst run early in the second half that saw the Hawks take the lead.
Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) came off the bench to score 18 points to lead S&T, his fourth double figure outing in his last five games. He is one of three Miners averaging in double figures on the year with his mark of 11.7 points per game along with
B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) and
Desmond Buerge (Carthage, Mo./Carthage).
McLaughlin, who leads S&T with his 15.3 points per outing, added 17 points in Saturday's win while Buerge scored 14 to up his seasonal mark to 10.3 points a contest.
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) leads the Miners in rebounding with 7.4 a game and leads the GLVC in offensive rebounds with 52, while
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) ranks second in the league in assists with 81 and has added a team-high 32 steals.
Truman State, 14-5 overall and 6-3 in the GLVC, enters Thursday's game with wins in 10 of its last 12 games, including Saturday's 81-67 victory over Maryville.
Balance has been the story for the Bulldogs this season, with five players averaging between 12.3 and 10.5 points per game. Cory Myers leads the way with the 12.3 per game mark and is the team's top rebounder with 4.2 a game along with Connor Erickson, who averages 11.8 points a game. Myers also leads the Bulldogs in assists with 73 and steals with 37.
Kyle Kanaskie is scoring 11.4 points a game and has made 38 three-pointers this season, second to Andrew Vander Zwaag's 44.
Truman is averaging 9.4 treys per contest, the second-best mark in the conference and is hitting them at a 35.2 percent clip. The league in that category is Saturday's opponent, Quincy, who has made 9.5 three-point shots per game at a rate of 37.6 percent.
The Hawks' leading scorer for the season, Joseph Tagarelli, has not hit a three-pointer all season but is averaging 16.9 points per game and is shooting 56.9 percent from the floor. Tagarelli is averaging 18.1 points in conference play and had 25 points in a win over Maryville last Thursday.
Quincy has four players averaging in double figures, including Evan McGaughey at 13.4 points a game – he also leads the Hawks with 7.8 rebounds per contest and is third in the GLVC with 22 blocked shots – Thomas Jackson at 11.5 points a game and Von Washington at 10.6 per outing. Herm Senor II is third in the conference with 83 assists.
Washington is among the top three-point shooters for the Hawks with 33 made treys on the year; the leader is Nate Des Jardins with 35. The Hawks have eight players who have made 12 or more three-point shots this season with Jordan Wilson hitting a league-best 52.6 percent of his attempts and Des Jardins is hitting 43.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Quincy opened the 2015-16 season with three straight losses, but has gone 13-2 since and currently leads the GLVC West Division with a 7-2 mark.
