ROLLA, Mo. – A light week of action awaits Missouri S&T's men's basketball team, as it will play just once and that will take place Saturday when the Miners head to St. Louis to face the University of Missouri-St. Louis in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest. Game time is at 3 p.m.
The Miners head into the game with the Tritons still seeking their first win in conference play, as they are coming off a tough 90-85 loss Saturday to Drury at Billy Key Court. S&T had its best shooting game in over a month, connecting on 53.6 percent of its shots and hitting 12 three-pointers, but couldn't get over the hump in the final moments to drop to 2-19 overall and 0-13 in the GLVC.
Chris Harris (Antioch, IL/Lake Forest Academy) led four Miners in double figures Saturday with 20 points – his second straight 20-point outing and seventh of the season – and enters Saturday's game leading the Miners with an average of 14.6 points per game. He is among six Miners averaging in double figures on the season and leads S&T with 49 three-point baskets.
Romain Louiserre (La Ferte Alais, France/Fredrick Fays) is averaging 13.5 points and a team-high 7.9 rebounds per contest, while
Sebastian Ferenc (Zgierz, Poland/), who had 16 points on Saturday, is scoring 12 points a game to go along with his 7.5 rebounds a contest. The other double figures scorers for S&T are
Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) at 11 points per game,
Allante Pickens (Chicago, IL/Curie) at 10.9 per game and
Ervin Sarajlic (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) at 10.1 per outing.
S&T has three players with at least 40 three-pointers this season – Harris, Sarajlic with 44 and Pickens with 43. Sarajlic made his 100
th career three-point basket during Saturday's game and is shooting 39.6 percent from long range, while Pickens has connected on 43.4 percent of his three-point tries.
ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS: The Tritons have had an up-and-down season, but swept both games on their weekend road trip to the northern end of the GLVC by picking up wins at Lewis and Wisconsin-Parkside. The two victories moved UMSL to 11-10 overall and 6-6 in the GLVC heading into a Thursday home game with Indianapolis.
Steven Davis leads three Tritons who are averaging in double figures on the season with his mark of 11 points per game and is one of the top three-point shooters in the conference, as he has made a team-high 52 shots from beyond the arc and has done so at a rate of nearly 40 percent. Davis had 20 points in the Tritons' 57-49 win Saturday over UW-Parkside.
Johnathan Matthews is averaging 10.7 points per game while Elijah Watson is scoring 10.5 points per game while also leading the GLVC with 5.4 assists per game; he has dished out 103 assists on the year. UMSL's top rebounder is Eric Dust with 4.5 per game.
The Tritons have held their opponents to just 68 points per game, the second-lowest average in the conference, as they have held teams to at 43.8 percent mark from the floor and to 33 percent from three-point land, marks that rank among the top four in the league. However, UMSL's own shooting percentage of 43.3 percent ranks next-to-last in the conference heading into play this week.
