ROLLA, Mo. – With two exhibition games under its belt, Missouri S&T will kick off its 2017-18 men's basketball schedule Saturday when it hosts Blackburn at 8 p.m. at Billy Key Court.

The Miners dropped both of the exhibitions last week against teams from the NCAA Division I level, falling at Southeast Missouri State and Tulsa despite the scoring efforts of freshman Chris Harris (Antioch, IL/Lake Forest Academy), who led S&T with 20 points at Southeast and 22 in Saturday's game at Tulsa.  The Miners also got 19 points from freshman Allante Pickens (Chicago, IL/Curie) in the exhibition opener, while newcomer Romain Louiserre (La Ferte Alais, France/Fredrick Fays) had 11 rebounds in each of the two contests.

Missouri S&T went 12-14 a year ago and returns four players from that squad; it was picked to finish fourth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division this season.  The Miners have their top scorer from last season back in Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka), as well as another double-figure scorer in Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights), a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference's all-defensive team a year ago.

Myers was one of the top three-point shooters in the GLVC last season as he made 73 – the 10^th-most in a season in school history – and hit them at a 42 percent clip as he averaged 14.8 points per game.  Meanwhile, Miller has the second-most assists in a season with 145 while scoring 11 points a game and also recorded 53 steals on the defensive end.

Two others who spent a good deal of time on the floor last season, Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) and Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy), are also back in the fold.  Sarajlic made over 50 percent of his three-point shots and averaged 7.5 points a game, while Scott averaged 7.1 points a contest as he shot 58 percent from the field.

ABOUT BLACKBURN: The Beavers finished the 2016-17 season with a 12-13 record and was one of the highest scoring teams in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, averaging 82.2 points per game on the season.  However, Blackburn graduated its top four scorers from that team -- all of whom averaged in double figures -- with the top returning scorer being senior guard Reed Rusten who scored 5.7 points a game.

Blackburn also got 5.4 points per game last season from Malcolm Scott and just under four per game from Jake Lochhead, who started in four games a year ago.

Duncan King led the Beavers in scoring Monday in their 117-45 exhibition loss at Drury, who shot 65 percent from the field in the victory.  Blackburn was picked to finish ninth in the SLIAC in the upcoming year.

The Miners defeated the Beavers 104-91 in the most recent meeting between the teams two seasons ago in Rolla.