Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners open the 2017 calendar year hosting the Lewis Flyers and Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers this weekend at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. The Lady Miners and Flyers contest begins at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and the contest against the Rangers tips off at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
S&T (6-5, 1-2 GLVC) will square off against a nationally ranked team for the second straight game on Thursday when it takes on Lewis. After dropping a 95-75 contest at then 14
th-ranked Drury on Saturday, the Lady Miners will have to contend with a Flyer ball club that is ranked 16
th in the country and has won 10 of their last 11 including a 37-point win over Saginaw Valley in their first game back after the holiday break.
Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ) led S&T in scoring with a season-high 18 points in the setback at Drury and has heated up over the last three games averaging nearly 16 points, four rebounds and two assists per contest. She knocked down three of the Lady Miners seven three-pointers at Drury, as they shot a season best 64 percent (7-for-11) from beyond the arc against the Lady Panthers. The performance from long range was the best by an S&T squad in nearly three seasons when it recorded a similar performance against Saint Joseph's.
Gray is one of the top scorers for the Lady Miners this season averaging 8.5 points per game.
Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) continues to lead the squad with 9.2 points per contest while
Elsie Greenwood (Breckenridge, Mo./Penney High School) is dropping home nine per game.
Kim Runge (Freedom, Wis./Freedom) leads the team in rebounding with 5.7 per game while
Aricca Daye (Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines East) leads S&T in both assists with 42 and steals with 22.
Lewis is paced by the duo of Jessica Kelliher and Jamie Johnson who are second and third, respectively in the GLVC in scoring. Kelliher, last year's GLVC freshman of the year, leads the Flyers with 19.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. She is shooting a league-best 66.5 percent from the field. Johnson, who was the GLVC's player of the year two seasons ago is scoring 19.3 points a game and is shooting 47 percent from the three-point line with a league-high 39 baskets from beyond the arc.
Gabby Green, a transfer from Bradley University, leads Lewis with 45 assists as the Flyers are shooting 50.1 percent from the floor, the best mark in the GLVC.
Wisconsin-Parkside enters Thursday's contest at Drury with a 2-9 record, 0-3 GLVC but is 2-2 since starting the season 0-7. The Rangers suffered an 82-53 setback at home against 21
st-ranked Grand Valley State on Saturday afternoon. Brittney Fair was the lone Parkside player to reach double figures in the contest finishing with 14 points.
The Rangers rank amongst the lower half in the GLVC averaging 60.6 points per game and are allowing 66.8 a contest. They've struggled to shoot the ball this season connecting on only 36.3 percent of their attempts from the floor and have made just 28 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc. They've also been outrebounded by nearly six rebounds per game.
Fair leads the team in scoring with 12 points per game while Shelby Cheston is dropping home six points per contest. Kauri Jensen and Cheston lead the squad in rebounding with 4.8 and 4.7 rebounds per game respectively. Fair is tied with Taylor Stephen for the team lead in assists with 29 and Stephen leads the squad with 20 steals.
