ROLLA, Mo. – Following a tough loss in an exhibition contest Tuesday at Southeast Missouri, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will crank up its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Saturday when it faces Drury in a 3 p.m. contest in Springfield, Mo.

The Miners took Southeast to the wire Tuesday, holding a lead in the final seconds before falling 72-69, but will come into this weekend's game looking to snap a four-game losing streak.  The last two of those setbacks took place at the site of Saturday's contest over the Thanksgiving weekend, where the Miners dropped games to Newman and Upper Iowa to fall to 2-4 on the season.

Heading into the Drury contest, Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) – who has three games with at least 20 points this season and had two of them in last weekend's event – leads the Miners with an average of 13.3 points per game.  Newt is shooting 45.2 percent from three-point range with a team-high 19 on the season, is one of four Miners currently scoring at least 10 points per game. 

CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) is averaging 12.8 per contest, while Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) is at 11 per game and Romain Louiserre (La Ferte Alais, France/Fredrick Fays), who had his first double-double of the season against Upper Iowa, is scoring 10.7 a game.  Hedgepeth led the Miners in scoring in Tuesday's game at Southeast with 28 points.

Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) leads the Miners in rebounding with 6.8 per game after hauling in a career-best 13 Saturday and is also tied for the team assist lead with Hedgepeth with 21.  He is also averaging 9.5 points per game on the year and leads S&T with 12 steals.

Missouri S&T entered the week ranked 10^th in NCAA Division II in scoring with an average of 93.7 points per game.

ABOUT DRURY: After dropping its first three games of the season at the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in Anaheim, Calif., Drury has won four of its last five to even its record at 4-4 on the season.  Following a Friday loss to Upper Iowa -- the team that beat S&T on Saturday -- the Panthers routed Newman 78-53 behind 19 points from Allen Billinger and 16 from Conley Garrison.

Drury shot 46.9 percent from the field in the win, while holding the Jets to 30.5 percent shooting.

Garrison leads a balanced scoring effort for the Panthers with an average of 14.9 points per game and has 31 assists, second on the team to Andrew Ballock's 34.  Julius Walker is scoring 9.7 points per game in a reserve role and Ballock is averaging 9.6 points a game and shares the team rebounding lead with Douglas Moore with 5.3 per contest.

Drury is averaging 8.1 three-point baskets per game, but has shot just 31.7 percent from beyond the arc over its first eight outings.

Rolla High School product Sam Marshall has been in the Drury starting lineup of late and is averaging 5.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game this season.