ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's basketball team will look to win back-to-back games in Great Lakes Valley Conference play for the first time since last February when it heads to Liberty, Mo., to face William Jewell in the first of two games on the Lady Miner schedule this week.

The Lady Miners will take on William Jewell in a 5:30 p.m. contest Thursday before returning to Billy Key Court for a Saturday evening clash with ninth-ranked Drury, which will also begin at 5:30 p.m.

Missouri S&T improved to 8-11 overall and 3-8 in the GLVC and currently sit in 13^th place in the overall standings in terms of the rankings for the GLVC Tournament, where the top eight teams will qualify.  S&T, however, is coming off an impressive 81-64 win over Rockhurst on Saturday as it got 21 points from Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) to lead four in double figures.

Arand scored 12 of S&T's first 14 points in the game and in the process, became the 14^th player in program history and first in five seasons to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career.  Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) had a big second half for the Lady Miners, as she scored 16 of her 18 points in the game to help S&T pull away in the second half.

Heading into play this week, Arand, the eighth-leading scorer in the GLVC with an average of 15.5 points per game, is second in the league in free throw percentage at 89.7 percent and is among the top three-point shooters as well as she is hitting 42.2 percent of her long range attempts.  She has a team-high 35 three-point baskets, while Raley has hit 31 treys and is 13^th in the conference in scoring at 13.5 points a game.

Bria Pierce (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley North) is averaging 9.1 points and 6.8 rebounds a game this season and Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic), who had 13 points Saturday, is scoring nine points per game, while leading S&T with 52 assists and 24 steals.

The Lady Miners last won back-to-back GLVC games nearly a year ago when they beat Illinois Springfield and McKendree and have not swept a season series from an opponent in conference play in five seasons, two accomplishments they can gain with a win on Thursday.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL: The Cardinals will come into Thursday's game with the Lady Miners at 9-9 overall and 6-5 in the GLVC after suffering a 101-46 loss on the road Saturday to 10^th-ranked Drury.  William Jewell never led in Saturday's contest and trailed by 20 by halftime before being outscored 56-21 in the second half as the Panthers shot 56.7 percent from the field to Jewell's 31.9 percent mark for the day.

Kayla Harrell leads the Cardinals with an average of 12.9 points per game, while Sydney Offield is averaging 10.6 points a game heading into play this week.  Harrell had 14 points in the first meeting with Missouri S&T – won by the Lady Miners 64-59 on Jan. 15 in Rolla – while Katie Finn and Adriana Rodriguez had 16 apiece to lead the Cardinals.

Finn is averaging 9.4 points per game and is the team's top three-point shooter with 34 made treys and a mark of 38.6 percent from long range, while Rodriguez is scoring 7.4 points per game.  No other Cardinal is scoring more than 5.8 points per game for a team that ranks last in the GLVC in scoring at 60.1 points per game, but is fourth in scoring defense at 61.5 points a game even after giving up a season-high 101 Saturday to Drury.

Offield is the top rebounder for Jewell with 5.3 boards per game and also leads the team in steals with 28, while Finn has a team-high 48 assists.

ABOUT DRURY: The Lady Panthers are coming off one of their most impressive performances of the season Saturday, shooting 56.1 percent from the field and connecting 15 times from three-point range in their 101-46 home win Saturday over William Jewell.  Drury, ranked ninth in this week's WBCA Division II coaches poll, enters Thursday's home game with Truman State at 18-2 overall and 9-1 in the GLVC.

Alice Heinzler scored a school record 41 points in the win over William Jewell, which included a Drury record nine three-point baskets and enters the week averaging 14.6 points per game to lead the Lady Panthers.  She is one of three Lady Panthers averaging in double figures in the scoring column, as Hailey Diestelkamp – who hails from nearby Owensville, Mo. – averaging 12.9 points a game and Heather Harman checking in with 12.4 points per contest.

Heinzler and Harman are the top two three-point shooters for the Lady Panthers, as Heinzler's 52 rank second in the GLVC and Harman ranks fifth with her 42 baskets from beyond the arc.    Meanwhile, Diestelkamp ranks among the GLVC leaders in rebounding with 8.1 per game – fifth in the conference – and in steals where she is fourth with 55.

Drury is the top scoring team in the GLVC with its average of 77.8 points per game and also ranks third in the league in scoring defense at 61.4 points per contest.  The Lady Panthers are also knocking down 7.7 three-pointers per game and lead the conference with an average of 13.5 offensive rebounds per outing.