Rolla, Mo. - It's coming down to the wire for the Missouri S&T Lady Miners as it's one of six teams battling for a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. The Lady Miners and Missouri-St. Louis, two teams battling for the final spot, will square off on Thursday at Billy Key Court beginning at 5:30 p.m. S&T then hits the road on Saturday for a trip to St. Louis to take on Maryville University at 1 p.m.
The Lady Miners, Tritons and Saints are all in the mix for a playoff spot and sit a game behind Indianapolis, William Jewell and Southern Indiana for the final three playoff spots. S&T is coming off a 64-43 win at Illinois Springfield this past Saturday behind 19 points from
Bria Pierce (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley North), 13 from
Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) and 11 from
Jamy Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy).
Pierce continues to lead the Lady Miners in scoring with an average of 11 points per game, while
Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ) comes into Thursday's contest with a mark of 9.5 points a contest and a team-high 64 assists.
Douvier is the top rebounder with 6.3 per game and is also scoring 9.1 points per outing, while Arand is hitting 42 percent of her three-point shots, the 10
th-best mark in the GLVC. Arand is scoring 8.3 points a game heading into Thursday's contest.
Linda Pagrode (Jaunolaine, Latvia/Riga 99), the lone senior on the Lady Miner roster, will be honored between games of the doubleheader on Thursday.
Missouri-St. Louis is coming off a pair of road setbacks to teams from the GLVC East, the latest a 76-69 loss Saturday at Southern Indiana. Jordan Fletcher led the Tritons with 16 points and Kelly Kunkel added 15 but the UMSL was done in by 21 turnovers in the game.
Kunkel and Fletcher are the top two scorers for the Tritons on the year, with Kunkel averaging 12.6 points per game and Fletcher averaging 11. Fletcher ranks among the league leaders in blocked shots with 29 and is first on the team in rebounds with 5.8 per game. She is shooting 56.6 percent from the field for a team this is making just under 40 percent of its tries on the year. Kunkel has hit a team-high 34 three-point baskets, while Sydney Bloch leads the Tritons with 73 assists and 42 steals.
Missouri S&T won the first meeting between the teams in St. Louis on Dec. 5, taking a 53-41 decision as Douvier had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Lady Miners.
Maryville also suffered a pair of road setbacks last weekend dropping a 74-61 decision at Southern Indiana then fell at Bellarmine 78-59. The Saints have lost nine of their last 11 contests heading into Thursday's game at 12
th ranked Drury.
Alex Hillyer and Ali Ringering are the leading scorers for Maryville on the season. Hillyer is dropping in 16.2 points per contest, while Ringering is averaging 12.8 points per outing. Stephanie Sherwood and Alex Wolf are adding nine points a game each. Ringering has connected on nearly 44 percent of her attempts from beyond the arc, while Sherwood has made a team-high 33 three-point baskets this season.
Hillyer and Wolf have been cleaning up on the boards averaging 7.7 and 7.6 rebounds a game respectively. Carly Frala has distributed a team best 57 assists and Sherwood leads the way with 34 steals.
The Saints defeated the Lady Miners 74-64 in the first matchup of the season in Rolla on Dec. 3. Sherwood scored a game-high 24 points, knocking down six three-pointers in the contest. Hillyer added 21 points and had eight rebounds in the contest.
