ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T closes out its first semester schedule Saturday afternoon with a big road test – a matchup with 12
th-ranked Drury in a 3 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference contest in Springfield, Mo.
The Miners, at 7-1 on the season and 1-1 in the GLVC, will take on the undefeated Panthers, who took both of their conference matches on the opening weekend of league play and are 7-0 on the year.
After losing for the first time on the season last Saturday to Missouri-St. Louis, the Miners bounced back by routing Robert Morris-Peoria 103-49 Wednesday.
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), S&T's leading scorer on the season with an average of 17.4 points per game, led the way with 21 points in the win and continues to shoot the ball well from long range, as he is connecting on 48.1 percent of his three-point attempts this year.
Myers has made a team-high 25 baskets from beyond the arc – ranking fourth in the GLVC – and is sixth in scoring in the league through Wednesday's action. He is one of three Miners averaging in double figures along with
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) at 13.3 points per game and
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) at 11.4 a contest; Paulauskas also leads S&T on the boards with an average of 7.9 per game, the fourth-best mark in the GLVC.
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) is third in the league in assists with 41 and tied for fourth in steals with 15, while
Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) is third with a mark of 60.9 percent from three-point range.
Missouri S&T leads the GLVC in scoring with an average of 93.5 points per game that also ranks ninth in NCAA Division II and is second in three-point baskets made to Truman State with its 88.
Drury, whose most recent game was a 103-68 win over Maryville last Saturday, enters the game ranked 12th in the latest NABC/Division II coaches poll. The Panthers, who are also 16th in the D2SIDA media poll, have played all seven of their games on their home floor this year and have won them by an average of nearly 16 points per game.
Four Panthers are averaging in double figures, led by Tevin Foster with an average of 17.4 points per game which ranks fifth in the conference. Foster is shooting 56.1 percent from the field and 46.9 percent from three-point range, while ranking seventh in the GLVC with his 31 assists.
Freshman Isaac Johnson, who has a team-high 21 three-point baskets, is averaging 13.4 points a game and is hitting 46.7 percent of his long range shots, while John Williams and Douglas Moore are scoring 11.7 per game. Williams and Moore are both shooting better than 60 percent from the field for a team that ranks seventh in NCAA Division II in field goal percentage at 53.7 percent.
Moore is also the Panthers' top rebounder with 5.3 per game.
Drury is one of just 16 remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division II through Wednesday's play across the nation.
