By: John Kean, Sports Information Director
ROLLA, Mo. – Off to its first 3-0 start in six seasons, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will hit the road for the first time in the 2016-17 season over the holiday weekend as it takes part in the Eliiott Lodging Thanksgiving Classic at Drury University in Springfield, Mo.
The Miners will face another undefeated team in their first contest of the weekend when they take on Missouri Southern Friday at 1 p.m., then take on another former rival from their days in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association the following afternoon when they play Emporia State in another 1 p.m. game.
The Miners won three home contests last week to open with a trio of wins for the first time since the 2010-11 season and did so with an onslaught on the offensive end of the floor, as S&T averaged 99.3 points and 13 three-pointers in those three games.
S&T cleared the 100-point mark twice and scored 91 in the other victory, while hitting at least 10 three-point baskets in each of those games, the first time since the three-point basket came into play in college basketball that a Miner team has opened a year with three straight games with at least 10 treys in each.
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), who hit 11 of S&T's 39 threes in the opening week, leads the Miners with an average of 18.7 points per game and had 26 points – with six three-pointers along the way – in the 91-88 win over Lincoln last Wednesday. Myers is one of four double figure scorers for S&T along with
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) at 17.7 points a game,
Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) at 13 per game and
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) at 11.3 a contest.
Simon scored 20 in each of the first two S&T wins, while Sarajlic connected seven times from long range for a career-high 21 points in Saturday's win over Calvary; he has also made 11 three-pointers in the first three contests. Meawhile, Miller leads the Miners in assists with 19 and steals with seven.
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.), who is just below the double figure mark in scoring at 9.3 points a game, leads S&T with 9.3 rebounds per contest and already has 15 offensive rebounds.
As a team, the Miners are shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from three-point range, while outrebounding their opponents by over 12 per game. A little over a week into the season, the Miners rank among the top 10 in NCAA Division II in four significant categories, including third in scoring margin and fourth in three-pointers per game.
ABOUT MISSOURI SOUTHERN: The Lions, who beat Rockhurst 85-74 Tuesday, are off to a 4-0 start as they have also recorded win over St. Cloud State, Minnesota State and William Jewell, the latter of which came after MSSU scored the final 10 points of Saturday's game for a 99-89 win.
While the Miners are seventh in the nation in scoring, the Lions rank 16th at 93.8 per game, headed by CJ Carr with an average of 28.3 points per game. Carr, the nation's
second-leading scorer through Tuesday's action, had at least 25 points in the first three MSSU wins and his 47-point outburst in an overtime win over then-No. 17 Minnesota State is the top performance in Division II this season.
Carr, who also leads MSSU in assists (31) and steals (18), is among four double figure scorers for the Lions along with JJ Cratit at 16.8 points a game, Elyjah Clark at 14.5 a contest and LJ Ross, who is scoring 13.5 a game. As a team, the Lions are shooting 43.3 percent from three-point range and have averaged 10.5 treys per game thus far.
Ross is the Lions' top rebounder with seven per game, but MSSU has been outrebounded by five boards per game on the year.
ABOUT EMPORIA STATE: The Hornets bring a 2-3 record into Friday's game against Drury Friday before taking on the Miners Saturday afternoon. Emporia State fell behind by 10 points at halftime and by as many as 21 Tuesday and eventually lost 83-79 at Northwestern Oklahoma State, despite getting 24 points from Brian Morton.
Morton, who leads the Hornets in scoring with an average of 15.2 points per game, is among five double figure scorers for a team averaging 87 points per game. Brandon Hall is averaging 14.5 points a contest, while Stephaun Limuel is 11.6 per game. are among five Hornets averaging in double figures for a team scoring 87 points per game.
Limuel is also Emporia's leader on the boards with 7.6 per game while Morton has a team-high 20 assists.
Jay Temaat is scoring 10.8 a game and Danny Hodge, making his first appearance of the season Saturday in the win over Kansas Christian, scored 10 points in that contest.
The Hornets are shooting nearly 47 percent as a team from the field and have averaged better than 22 points per game at the free throw line in their first five games. Emporia has also been solid on the boards, pulling down an average of 5.6 more than its foes.
