ROLLA, Mo. – For the fourth time in five years, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will play a game on the final day of the calendar year as it travels to Russellville, Ark., for a Saturday matinee against Arkansas Tech. Game time is 1 p.m. for the Miners' final non-conference game of the season.
Missouri S&T got back on the floor Wednesday when it played Southern Illinois Edwardsville in an exhibition contest and fell 85-67 as it shot just 32.8 percent from the field. The Miners were led in scoring by
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) with 16 points, while
Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) and
Quinn Poythress (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional) chipped in with 12 apiece.
Simon is one of three double figure scorers on the season for the Miners with his average of 12.6 points per game. S&T is led in the scoring column by
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) with a mark of 16.8 points per game; he ranks among the Great Lakes Valley Conference leads in scoring and three-pointers made with 28.
Meanwhile,
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) – S&T's third double figures scorer with 11.4 points per contest, sits atop the Miners' rebounding list at 8.3 per game which is the league's fifth-best mark.
Paulauskas is also fifth in the GLVC in field goal percentage at 65.7 percent, a category led by teammate
Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) at 68.2 percent.
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) leads the Miners in assists with 43 and steals with 18.
As a team, the Miners rank second in the GLVC in scoring with an average of 91.1 points per game – Southern Indiana leads with its mark of 94.7 a contest – and leads the league with its 10.9 three-pointers per outing.
Arkansas Tech brings a 5-2 into the game as it will be playing for the first time since posting a 103-92 win at Missouri Southern on Dec. 19. In that win, the Wonder Boys got a combined 55 points from Grant Prusator and Alex Brown, as the duo made 11-of-17 from three-point range; Tech made 14 treys in the contest and shot 55.6 percent from the field.
Four players are averaging in double figures for the Wonder Boys, led by Montrell Williams with an average of 13.4 points per contest. Brown is scoring 12.7 points a game following his 32-point effort at Missouri Southern, while Bennie Lufile is at 12.3 a game and Prusator -- who hit seven of Tech's 14 treys at MSSU -- is averaging 10.7 points per contest.
Prusator has a team-high 23 three-point baskets and is shooting 43.4 percent from beyond the arc, while Williams has made 41 percent of his long range attempts. Tech is second in NCAA Division II with an average of 12.6 three-point baskets per game.
Lufile leads the Wonder Boys and Great American Conference with an average of 8.9 rebounds per game, while Justin Graham's 50 assists are also the top mark in that league.
Following Saturday's contest, Missouri S&T will return to Great Lakes Valley Conference play when it hosts Lewis on Jan. 5 at Billy Key Court.
