ROLLA, Mo. -- Missouri S&T's men's basketball team wraps up its its three-week homestand Saturday afternoon as it plays host to Drury in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at Gibson Arena. Tip-off is at 3 p.m.
The Miners snapped a six-game losing streak last Saturday when they knocked off Maryville 87-73 behind a career-high 30 points from
Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy), moving their records to 4-17 overall and 2-11 in the GLVC in the process. They will take on a Drury team that has won its last five outings, the most recent an 84-68 win last Saturday over Missouri-St. Louis that tightened the race at the top of the conference standings.
Scott's 30-point game -- the first by a Miner in nearly five seasons -- increased his scoring average for the season to 11.8 points per game as he has averaged nearly 18 points in his last five contests.
CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) continues to lead the Miners in the scoring column among the active players with his mark of 12.2 per contest;
Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) owns the highest average at 14.3 per game, but he has been sidelined with an injury.
Hedgepeth has a team-high 32 steals as well – ranking fourth in the GLVC – and is tied with
Juwan Miller (Kitchener, Ont./Huron Heights) for the team lead in assists with 62. Miller is also S&T's top rebounder on the year with an average of five per game.
ABOUT DRURY: After hovering around the .500 mark for much of the season, the Panthers are now one of the hottest teams in the GLVC as they come into Saturday's contest sporting a five-game winning streak. The current run is tied for the longest in the conference entering this week's action and has moved the Panthers to 14-10 overall and 8-5 in GLVC play.
Drury got huge games from Conley Garrison and Kamau Kinder in their 84-68 win last Saturday over Missouri-St. Louis, as Garrison recorded a game-high 26 points and Kinder added 22; both players hit six three-pointers apiece as the Panthers connected 15 times from long range. Garrison, whose 69 treys are the most of any player in the conference, currently ranks fifth in the GLVC in scoring with his average of 17.6 points per game and also ranks third in assists with five per game.
The Panthers are also getting 11.6 points per game from Allen Billinger, who has made 56 three-point baskets this season, while Andrew Ballock is averaging 9.7 a game and is Drury's top rebounder with 5.4 a game. As a team, the Panthers rank second in the GLVC in scoring defense as they have given up just 66.9 points per game with opposing teams shooting only 43.8 percent from the field against them.
