ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's basketball team will close out its home schedule for the 2017-18 season on Thursday when it takes on McKendree in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at Billy Key Court.  Game time is at 5:30 p.m.

The Lady Miners will finish their schedule on the road Saturday when they face Rockhurst in a 1 p.m. contest in Kansas City, Mo.  The Hawks currently hold the eighth and final spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament field, one position ahead of McKendree, with the Lady Miners sitting in 12^th among the eligible teams as the week begins.

Missouri S&T comes into Thursday's game at 8-16 overall and 3-13 in the GLVC after a tough 87-80 loss Saturday to Lewis at Billy Key Court.  The Lady Miners led by three at halftime and by as many as nine in the third quarter, but were unable to hold on as their losing streak reached five games.

Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) connected six times from three-point range and led S&T with 22 points on Saturday, improving her team-leading scoring average to 15.7 points per game.  Arand's next two points will move her into a tie for 10^th place on the Lady Miners' all-time scoring list as she enters the game with 1,093 points for her career.

She has also hit a team-high 46 three-point baskets at a rate of 44.7 percent, while Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) has made 42 and is averaging 13.1 points a game.  Meanwhile, Bria Pierce (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley North) is averaging 8.9 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds per contest and Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) is scoring 8.8 points a game while leading S&T with 69 assists.  Joe'l Bland (St. Charles, Mo./Homeschooled), coming off a season-high 18-point performance Saturday, has nine steals in her last two games and has 32 on the season to lead the team.

ABOUT McKENDREE: The Bearcats, ninth in the GLVC playoff race in the league's point rating system, are 10-13 overall and 6-10 in the GLVC coming into Thursday's contest.  McKendree halted a four-game losing streak with a 67-56 win Saturday at Maryville, but has lost six of its last eight games entering the week.

McKendree has two double figure scorers on the season, led by Jordan Heberg with an average of 12.7 points per game.  However, the hottest Bearcat right now may be freshman Sydney Diekhoff, who has led her team in scoring in four of the last five games – including a 19-point effort at Maryville – and is averaging 11.8 points per contest.

Diekhoff also leads the Bearcats with 46 three-pointers and is shooting nearly 37 percent from three-point range for a team that is just below the 30 percent from behind the arc.  The Bearcats are hitting only 39.9 percent of their field goal attempts as a team this season, but have two post players over the 50 percent mark in Jordan Morton at 50.5 percent and Megan Jensen at 59.7 percent.

Morton is the top rebounder for the Bearcats with 5.9 per game, while Callie Pohlmann is the leader in assists with 71 and steals with 38.

ABOUT ROCKHURST:  The Hawks, 10-14 overall and 6-10 in GLVC play, enter the week as the holder of the eighth spot in the GLVC playoff race according to the league's point rating system.  However, Rockhurst has a date with fifth-ranked Drury in Springfield, Mo., on Thursday prior to S&T's visit on Saturday afternoon.

Rockhurst also has two players averaging in double figures, as Madeline Ronshausen is pouring in 15.8 points per game and Jillian Myers is scoring 12.6 per contest.  Ronshausen is among the GLVC leaders in scoring, where she ranks seventh and in three-pointers per game, as she sits third with her 58 treys on the year.

Myers is among the GLVC leaders in several categories, as she ranks second in steals with 76, third in assists with 99 and sixth in blocked shots with 30 while also owning the seventh-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the GLVC.  Myers' 12.6 scoring average is 19^th in the conference.

Along with those two, Briahtia Sebek is shooting 44.3 percent from three-point range and has made 35 on the season, while Kaci German is the team's top rebounder with five per contest.  The Hawks have held their opponents to just 39.9 percent shooting on the season and to a 29.9 percent mark from three-point range.