ROLLA, Mo. -- Missouri S&T's women's basketball team will play at home in Great Lakes Valley Conference play for the first time this week and the first opponent coming into Gibson Arena is a nationally-ranked Lewis squad that is currently tied for the lead in the conference.

The Miners and Flyers will square off at 5:30 p.m.  Thursday night at Gibson Arena, then S&T closes the two-game homestand Saturday when it takes on Indianapolis in a 1 p.m. contest.

The Miners come into Thursday's outing with a 5-5 overall record and 1-2 mark in the GLVC after splitting two games in Kansas City last weekend, as they got a victory at Rockhurst before falling Saturday at William Jewell.  All five starters for the Miners scored in double figures in the win at Rockhurst, where Mykala Baylor's (South Bend, Ind./Clay) basket with 1:32 left decided the contest.

Baylor is the leading rebounder in the GLVC with nine per game and ranks first in blocked shots with 2.8 per game (28 overall), while averaging 9.7 points per game.  The top scorer for S&T coming into the game is Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern), who is scoring 12.6 points per game and is hitting just over 41 percent of her three-point shots, while freshman Alex Kerr (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) is averaging 10.6 points a contest and is second in Baylor in rebounding (6.1 a game) and blocked shots with 14.
 
ABOUT LEWIS: The Flyers come into play this weekend ranked 17th in the latest WBCA national poll and fourth in the D2SIDA media poll, as they have won 12 straight contests since a season-opening loss to Northern Michigan.  Lewis, who has allowed 57.7 points per game, is 3-0 in the GLVC and won two lopsided contests last week, beating 24th-ranked Truman State by 30 and Quincy by 52 and is 12-1 this season.

Jessica Kelliher leads the GLVC in scoring with average of 23.7 points per game and is also the league's fourth-leading rebounder with 8.9 per game.  Kelliher, who is shooting a league-high 66.3 percent from the field, is the Flyers' all-time leading scorer and has 2,294 points in her career following a 38-point effort Tuesday against Central State.
 
Rachel Hinders is also scoring in double figures for Lewis with a mark of 11.2 points per game, while Morgan Glatczak is second in the conference with 2.76 blocked shots per game and a total of 36 on the season.  Gabby Green has a team-high 51 assists and 33 steals, while Tierney Lockett has dished out 44 assists.

ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS: The Greyhounds come into play this week at 6-7 overall and 0-3 in the GLVC; UIndy takes on fourth-ranked Drury Thursday in Springfield prior to facing the Miners Saturday.  A 73-51 home loss to Truman State last Saturday was the fourth in succession for UIndy, who also fell to Quincy in conference play last week in overtime.

Taylor Drury leads three Greyhounds in double figures with an average of 15.8 points per game, a mark that ranks sixth in the GLVC at the start of the week.  Drury is also hitting 40.5 percent of her three-point attempts with a team-high 32 on the season, while Katie Sowa has made 22 at a clip of 47.8 percent.

Laura Thomas is scoring 14.8 points per game and Emma Benoit is at 13.3 per contest while also leading the team in rebounding with 6.5 a game.  The Greyhounds rank third in the GLVC in both team field goal percentage (44.6 percent) and three-point shooting (35.6 percent).