ROLLA, Mo. – A challenging road swing awaits Missouri S&T's men's basketball team as it begins a four-game stretch away from home Thursday at Quincy University.
The Miners, 8-8 overall and 2-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, will play their next four contests against teams that currently sit either first or second in their respective divisions in the league. The first of those will come at Quincy at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against a Hawk team that is 16-4 on the year, followed by Saturday's matchup against GLVC West Division leader Truman State in a 3 p.m. game in Kirksville, Mo.
S&T snapped a seven-game losing streak Saturday with its 90-83 win over William Jewell to return to the .500 mark on the year, as two Miners recorded double-doubles among five players in the double figures in the scoring column.
Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead S&T, while
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.) finished with 12 points and 10 boards. Paulauskas leads the Miners in the rebounding category with 7.6 per game, while Holmes is one of four Miners scoring in double figures at 11.9 points per game.
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) continues to lead the Miners on the offensive end of the floor with his average of 14.4 points a game and a team-high 45 three-point baskets, while
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) is averaging 11.4 per game and
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) 10.4. Miller is also second in the GLVC with his 33 steals and third in assists with 84.
Meanwhile, three other Miners rank seventh in various shooting categories in the GLVC --
Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) in field goal percentage at 59.8 percent,
Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) in three-point shooting at 48.0 percent and Simon with a mark of 87.8 percent at the free throw line.
ABOUT QUINCY: The Hawks snapped a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 90-79 win at Maryville, a skid that came on the heels of a 14-game winning streak that was their longest in seven years. Quincy comes into Thursday's game sporting a 16-4 overall record and is tied for second in the GLVC West Division at 6-3.
Ranking fourth in the GLVC in scoring with an average of 87.1 points per game, the Hawks are one of the top field goal shooting teams in the nation at 52.2 percent -- a mark that ranks fifth nationally. Quincy's top three scorers are all shooting better than 55 percent from the floor, led by Evan McGaughey's mark of 62.7 percent which is third in the league-- and a 56.1 percent mark from three-point range.
McGaughey is averaging 17.8 points per game, which is second on the team to Joseph Tagarelli's mark of 19.2 a contest. Both players rank among the top five in the GLVC in scoring, while Von Washington comes in with an average of 14.8 points a game on 55.3 percent shooting; he has also connected on 43.3 percent of his three-point attempts with a team-best 42.
Tagarelli leads the Hawks on the boards as he has pulled down 8.9 per game, good for second in the GLVC, while Herm Senor leads the conference with 136 assists which is fifth-best in Division II. Senor also has a team-high 28 steals on the season.
ABOUT TRUMAN STATE: The Bulldogs, who host Drury Thursday prior to Saturday's matchup with S&T, currently lead the GLVC West with a 7-2 conference record and are 15-4 overall. Truman got 23 points -- including six three-pointers -- from Jake Velky to overtake Missouri-St. Louis in overtime Saturday by the score of 86-82 for its third straight victory.
Velky leads a balanced scoring effort for the Bulldogs with an average of 17.8 points per contest and is scoring nearly 21 per game in GLVC play. He ranks fourth in the league in scoring and second to teammate Nathan Messer in three-point baskets for a team that is fifth in NCAA Division II and first in the conference with 11.5 treys per game; Truman has made 218 three-point baskets as a team this season.
Four Bulldogs are averaging in double figures, with Cory Myers scoring 14.6 points a game, Messer at 13.1 a contest and Connor Erickson scoring 10.9 per game. Erickson is also the Bulldogs' leader on the boards with 6.5 per game, while Dwight Sistrunk has dished out a team-high 80 assists while scoring just over eight points a game.
Truman's 44.3 percent mark from three-point range is the second-best in Division II and is one of only three teams in the D-II ranks with two players (Messer and Velky) among the top 26 in successful three-point field goals.
