ROLLA, Mo. – Great Lakes Valley Conference play resumes for Missouri S&T's men's basketball team this week as the Miners will host a pair of conference doubleheaders at Billy Key Court, beginning with a Thursday night visit from Lewis University.
The Miners and Flyers will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night before S&T concludes its brief homestand with a Saturday afternoon contest against Wisconsin-Parkside that will start at 3 p.m.
S&T and Lewis are both coming off losses in their first official games back from the NCAA Division II winter break, as the Miners dropped a 91-88 overtime decision at Arkansas Tech and Lewis struggled from the field in a 60-50 home loss Friday to Northwood. The Miners are 7-3 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC heading into Thursday's contest while Lewis is 7-5 overall and 2-0 in the league.
UW-Parkside, who is also 2-0 in the GLVC, owns the league's third-longest winning streak at 10 games as it takes a 10-1 record into action this week.
ABOUT THE MINERS: Missouri S&T had five players in double figures for the second game in succession, but a cold stretch in overtime sent it to a loss Saturday at Arkansas Tech.
Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) and
Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) led the Miners with 15 points apiece at Arkansas Tech while
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), the team's leading scorer, finished with 14.
Myers, the 10
th-leading scorer in the GLVC with an average of 16.5 points per game, is also ranked second in the league in three-pointers per game with 3.2 for the league's second-ranked team in three-pointers made per contest. The Miners have made 108 treys in the first 10 games of the year and are the second-highest scoring team in the GLVC with an average of 90.8 points an outing.
Myers is among four S&T players averaging in double figures along with
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's)s, who has scored 12 points a game;
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.), who is averaging 11.2 points per contest and Holmes, who has scored 10.4 per game. Paulauskas is also S&T's top rebounder with 8.2 a game – good for sixth in the league – and also is also among the top 10 in the GLVC in field goal percentage at 61.7 percent.
Scott ranks third in the league in field goal percentage at 67.3 percent, while
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) is third in the conference with his 48 assists and 19 steals.
Along with their scoring mark within the GLVC, the Miners also rank first in the conference in three-point defense as they have held their foes to 28.5 percent from beyond the arc, the 10
th-best mark in NCAA Division II. S&T is also shooting 40.4 percent from long range this season.
ABOUT LEWIS: After a 3-4 start to the season that included two overtime losses, the Flyers won six consecutive games heading into the holiday break before suffering the loss Friday to Northwood in their return to action. That loss dropped Lewis to 7-5 on the year, but it is 2-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as it won home conference games in December over Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis.
Miles Simelton heads the Flyers with an average of 14.3 points per game and also leads the way in a number of categories, including three-pointers made with 19, assists with 42 and steals with 13. Delaney Blaylock is averaging 14.1 points a game and Frank Vukaj, the second-leading shot blocker in the league with 24, is scoring 10 points per game. Cristen Wilson leads the Flyers with an average of 6.6 rebounds per game.
The Flyers are one of the top teams in the GLVC on the defensive end as they have held opponents to just 41 percent shooting from the field this season.
ABOUT UW-PARKSIDE: The Rangers enter Thursday's contest at Drury sporting a 10-game winning streak, which started following a 22-point loss in their season opener against Northern Michigan. During the run, UW-Parkside -- who is also 2-0 in the GLVC -- has outscored its opponents by an average of 14 points per game thanks to one of the best shooting teams in NCAA Division II.
UW-Parkside is ranked fourth in the nation in field goal percentage at 53.4 percent and is second nationally from behind the three-point line with a mark of 46.7 percent. Three Rangers have made more than 20 three-pointers this season, led by Jake Verhagen's 25, while Adam Bonk has made 64.7 percent of his attempts and Alexander Brown has hit on 56.8 percent of his tries.
Brown leads the Rangers in scoring with an average of 16 points per game, while Kendale McCullum is averaging 15.8 per game and Verhagen enters the week at 10.4 per outing. McCullum is also second in the GLVC in assists with 73 and ranks among the league leaders with 28 steals, while UW-Parkside's top rebounder is Goran Zagorac with 5.6 a game.
The Rangers come into play this week averaging 86.8 points per game and have scored 85 or more points in five straight contests.
