ROLLA, Mo. – With a chance to solidify its position in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament race, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team heads on the road for the last time in the 2016-17 regular season to play a pair of games in the St. Louis area this week.
The Miners, who are in a three-way tie for 10
th place in the overall conference standings – the top 12 teams will advance to the GLVC Tournament – will open the week against one of the teams they are in the three-way tie with as they will play Missouri-St. Louis Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. contest.
Following the UMSL game on Thursday, the Miners will return to St. Louis Saturday to face Maryville at 3 p.m.
Missouri S&T will bring a 10-12 record into Thursday's game after knocking off McKendree 102-88 Saturday at Billy Key Court. The Miners had six players in double figures – including three that recorded double-doubles – led by
Randy Holmes (St. Louis, MO/Soldan International Studies) with 22 points.
Holmes was named Monday as the GLVC's "Player of the Week" after he averaged 23 points in S&T's two games, which raised his seasonal scoring total nearly an entire point to 12.9 points a game. He is among four double figure scorers for the Miners this season, led by
Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka)' 14.4 points per contest.
Myers also leads the Miners with 59 three-point baskets on the season for a team that had made 222 heading into Thursday's game, the fourth-most in the conference.
Telloy Simon (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's), who is scoring 12 points a game, has made 41 treys this year.
The fourth double figure scorer is
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) at 10.6 points a game and he is coming off a game where he tied the school's single-game record with 13 assists. Miller is third in the GLVC with 117 assists and is also second in the conference with 47 steals. S&T's top rebounder heading into play this week is
Rokas Paulauskas (Talsiai, Lithuania/Hamilton Heights Acad.), who had one of the three double-doubles Saturday and is pulling down 7.5 rebounds per game.
ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS: The Tritons come into Thursday's game tied with the Miners at 4-11 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and is 10-15 overall. UMSL has dropped six of its last seven, the most setback a 73-56 loss Saturday to seventh-ranked Bellarmine in St. Louis.
Hunter Reine, who had a team-high 15 points in Saturday's game, leads the Tritons with an average of 11.3 points per game and is the GLVC leader on the boards with 8.9 per contest. Reine also ranks fifth in the GLVC in field goal percentage as he is shooting 60.6 percent from the floor.
Steven Davis is averaging 10.7 points per game and is among the top three-point shooters in the league at 43.6 percent -- with 72 treys on the year -- while Elijah Watson is also in double figures in the scoring column at 10.1 points a game. Watson leads the Tritons in assists with 81 and steals with 30.
Rolla native Kobe Wands, who has played in all 25 games for UMSL as a freshman, is second on the team with 35 three-pointers and is averaging 5.4 points per contest.
The Tritons ranks last in the GLVC in scoring with an average of 68.3 points per game, but are third in scoring defense at 71.6 points allowed per outing. UMSL beat the Miners 91-74 in Rolla in the first matchup between the teams on Dec. 3.
ABOUT MARYVILLE: The Saints come into Thursday's home game with Drury at 8-19 overall and 2-13 in the Great Lakes
Valley Conference, but are still clinging to a chance to make the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament field. Maryville has dropped 10 of its last 11 games, including setbacks to nationally-ranked Bellarmine and Southern Indiana last week.
Forrester Sims leads four Saints in double figures with an average of 13.1 points per game, while Grant Sims (no relation) is scoring 12.9 per game and leads Maryville with 79 assists. Anthony Johnson and Jimmy Barton, who did not play in the first meeting with S&T, are also scoring around 11 points per contest.
Johnson is the Saints' top rebounder with 5.4 per game, while Jeff Leeson leads the team with 38 three-point baskets, one more than Forrester Sims. Maryville is shooting 37 percent as a team from beyond the arc.
Missouri S&T defeated Maryville 82-69 on Dec. 1 in Rolla.
