ROLLA, Mo. – Owners of sole possession of first place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division, Missouri S&T heads north for a pair of games this weekend against two of the top teams in the league's East Division.
The Miners will take on Wisconsin-Parkside – the three-time defending division champion – Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Somers, Wis., then heads down the road to Romeoville, Ill., to face Lewis Saturday at 3 p.m. S&T's two opponents this weekend come in with a combined record of 17-5.
The Miners come into the weekend sporting a six-game winning streak, the longest run for S&T in 12 years. The current streak includes three wins in GLVC play that put S&T at the top of the division standings; Missouri S&T is 7-5 overall heading into Thursday's game.
B.J. McLaughlin (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) scored 23 of his game-high 25 points in the first half to lead the Miners to that sixth straight win, a 97-70 victory over Principia on New Year's Eve. McLaughlin leads the Miners in scoring heading into the first contest of 2016 with an average of 16.5 points per game – ranking 10
th in the GLVC -- while shooting 50.4 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range.
Zach Ellis (St. Louis, Mo./Whitfield School) is also in double figures for the Miners with his average of 10.9 points a game, while
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) is just below the double figure mark at 9.4 points per game. Paulauskas leads the Miners in rebounding with 8.5 per game, a mark that ranks fourth in the league.
Missouri S&T shot a season-high 54.3 percent from the field in the win over Principia and has raised its shooting percentage to 41.2 percent on the year. The Miners also lead the GLVC in offensive rebounding with 16.2 per game which ranks third in NCAA Division II.
Wisconsin-Parkside opened its post-holiday break schedule by winning its fourth straight game, knocking off Indiana-Northwest 92-74 Saturday to improve to 8-2. Jalen Currie led five Rangers, who are 1-1 in the GLVC, in double figures with 16 points, while Goran Zagorac recorded a double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds.
Andy Mazurczak leads UW-Parkside in scoring with an average of 16.6 points per game, the ninth-best mark in the GLVC. Mazurczak also has a team-high 42 assists -- good for sixth in the conference -- after dishing out eight in Saturday's win and is shooting 52.6 percent from the field.
Alexander Brown is scoring 13.9 points a contest with a team-high 19 three-point baskets, while Kendale McCullum is averaging 12.9 points per game and Currie is also in double figures at 10 per game.
Currie hit four three-pointers in the win and owns the second-best three-point percentage in the GLVC at 55.2 percent for a team that leads the conference in that department with a mark of 43.5 percent from beyond the arc, the fifth-best mark in NCAA Division II.
Lewis enters the week at 9-3 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC; the Flyers host Drury Thursday before the Miners make their visit on Saturday afternoon.
Max Strus, who has the GLVC's top scoring performance of the season when he scored 52 points in a November contest against Northwood, leads the conference in scoring with an average of 23.8 points per game. Despite being held to a season-low nine points in a loss to St. Francis (Ill.) last weekend, Strus has scored 20 or more points eight of the Flyers' 12 games this season.
He is shooting 48.4 percent from the field and has 27 three-point baskets to share the team lead in that department with Capel Henshaw, who has made his 27 treys at a clip of 43.4 percent.
As a team, the Flyers are among the top shooting teams in the GLVC at 48.7 percent from the floor and have connected on nearly 37 percent of their three-point tries, despite making the fewest per game in the league at 6.4 per game.
Lewis is the top shot blocking team in the conference with 58 in the first 12 games of the year, led by Frank Vukaj's 18. Strus also has 11 blocked shots to go with a team-high 8.9 rebounds per game. Mikes Simelton leads the Flyers with 48 assists.
