ROLLA, Mo. – Fresh off its first conference win of the 2017-18 season, Missouri S&T will enter a challenging stretch of its schedule beginning Thursday when its hosts Truman State in a 5:30 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at Billy Key Court.

The Lady Miners, who fell to the Bulldogs 77-50 last Thursday in Kirksville, will face an 8-3 Truman squad before heading to Springfield, Mo., Saturday to go up against seventh-ranked Drury at 1 p.m., then close the holiday weekend with William Jewell at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Billy Key Court prior to a game three days later at Southern Indiana.

After its loss at Truman, Missouri S&T bounced back with a strong performance Saturday in a 79-63 win over Wisconsin-Parkside, as the Lady Miners ran out to a 24-7 lead after one quarter of play and led 40-19 at halftime to even its overall record at 6-6.  The Lady Miners are 1-3 in the GLVC heading into this week's action.

Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) recorded 25 points – 13 coming in the first quarter – in Saturday's win and enters Thursday's game as S&T's leading scorer with an average of 15.5 points per game that ranks ninth in the GLVC.   Arand has also connected 22 times from three-point range and is shooting 42.3 percent from beyond the arc, the league's fourth-best mark in that category.

Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) is also scoring in double figures for the Lady Miners with her average of 12.9 points per game and had made 19 three-pointers on the season, while Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) is averaging 8.8 points while leading S&T with 38 assists and 17 steals.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE: The Bulldogs had their five-game winning streak snapped Saturday -- two days after a win over Missouri S&T in Kirksville -- when they lost 73-58 at home to Lewis.  The Flyers held Truman to just 38.3 percent shooting from the floor in the contest.

Freshman Katie Jaseckas, the Bulldogs' leading scorer on the season with an average of 12.4 points per game, had 16 points in the loss.  Jaseckas enters play this week as the top field goal shooter in the GLVC at 65.8 percent and is also Truman's top rebounder with 6.4 per contest.

Ashley Hartwig is also scoring in double figures at 10.9 points per game, but no other player on Truman's roster is averaging more than the 6.9 per game posted by Rachel Edmundson.  However, the Bulldogs have been among the stingiest teams defensively in the GLVC, as they are holding their opponents to just 37.7 percent from the field.  The Lady Miners shot only 29.8 percent in their loss at Truman last week.

Sloane Totta leads Truman in assists with 25, while Tiffany Davenport has 13 steals on the defensive end of the floor.

ABOUT DRURY:  The Lady Panthers won a showdown between the GLVC's two nationally ranked teams with a 71-55 home win over Southern Indiana, outscoring the Screaming Eagles 35-22 in the second half as they held USI to 36.4 percent shooting in the second half.  Drury, who is idle until hosting S&T on Saturday, is 12-1 overall and 4-0 in the GLVC.

Alice Heinzler, one of the top three-point shooters in the conference with 30 made treys this year, leads the Lady Panthers with an average of 14.2 points per game, while Heather Harman is averaging 13.5 points per contest with a team-high 43 assists and Hailey Diestelkamp, a native of Owensville, Mo., is averaging 12.6 points a game.

Diestelkamp is Drury's top rebounder with 6.9 per game, while the Lady Panthers are also getting 9.3 points per game from Lucia Fernandez, who had a team-high 16 points in the win over USI.  Drury leads the GLVC with an average of 76.8 points per game and has ran off 10 straight wins since suffering a loss on Nov. 14 at Southwest Baptist.

Opposing teams have shot 45.7 percent from the field against Drury this season, but the Lady Panthers have forced their foes into 317 turnovers – an average of 24.4 per game – and only two teams have had fewer than 20 turnovers against them over the first 13 games of the year.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL:  The Cardinals picked up wins last week over Rockhurst and Bellarmine to improve to 7-5 overall and 4-1 in the GLVC; Jewell has won five of its last six contests and all of its GLVC wins have come in that stretch.  The Cardinals will play Rockhurst at home Thursday prior to facing S&T on Monday in Rolla.

Kayla Harrell had 26 points for the Cardinals in their 63-60 win Saturday over Bellarmine and leads them with in scoring with an average of 13 points per game while shooting 47.2 percent from the field.  She is one of two players averaging in double figures for Jewell, who is also getting 10.9 points a game from Sydney Offield.

Offield also leads the Cardinals in rebounding with 5.4 per game and in steals with 23, while Katie Finn, is the team leader in three-point baskets with 24 and assists with 33.  Finn enters the week averaging 9.6 points per game and is hitting 36.9 percent of her three-point attempts.

The Cardinals are averaging just 61.3 points per game, but have held opposing teams to just 59.5 points per contest and has held all five GLVC opponents to 61 points or fewer in those games.  No team has scored more than 67 points in a game against Jewell this season.