ROLLA, MO-The Miner women's basketball team will make their last road-trip of the regular season to St. Louis this weekend when they take on the Saints of Maryville University on Thursday night and the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.

S&T is coming off a tough battle against top-ranked Drury University. Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) led the charge for the Miners with 18 points while Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) and Laura Rodriguez (Gran Canaria, Spain/Baloncesto Torrelodones) came off the bench to combine for 23 points. Post players Alex Kerr (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) and Mykala Baylor (South Bend, Ind./Clay) rounded out the top scorers for the Miners as they each chipped in 10 points while Baylor picked up her 7^th double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.

The Miners hung with the Panthers for the better part of the first quarter, cutting DU's lead to 12-10 after a fast-break lay-up from Raley with 4:40 left in the opening quarter. Drury would end the quarter on a 17-6 run to take a 29-16 lead. That early lead would be all DU needed to secure the 104-70 win.

Missouri S&T (9-12, 5-9 GLVC) is currently led by Alex Kerr (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) and her 12.1 points per game. She has had a breakout freshman season with 255 points and 137 rebounds as just the third freshman to surpass the 200 points and 100 rebounds margin. Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) is right behind Kerr chipping in 11.1 points per game while shooting 45% from the field and 40% from three-point range.

As a team, the Miners are shooting 42.3% from the field and 34.6% from long range. They are ranked in the top five in multiple categories within the GLVC; they are holding their opponents to just 39.4% from the field, right behind Lewis who is holding teams to a league best 37%; they rank 2^nd with a 34.6% three-point percentage, 3^rd with 16.0 assists per game, 2^nd in total blocked shots (95), are tied for 1^st with 4.8 blocks per game, and sit in 1^st in defensive rebounds per game (29.0).

About Maryville:
The Saints come into Thursday's game 16-8 overall and 10-5 in GLVC having dropped their game last Saturday to 16th ranked Lewis University. The Flyers relied heavily on Jessica Kelliher, who scored 42 of the team's 86 points, in their takedown of Maryville. The Saints were led by Abby Monis who had 18 points while Mary Barton and Jayda Jensen chipped in 10 points each in the 86-67 loss.
 
The Saints are currently led by Mary Barton who is 4th in the league with 15.0 points per game. She is also currently 2nd in assists per game, 1st in free-throw percentage, and 3rd in assists/turnover ratio. Along with Barton, Kayla Stewart is contributing just under 12 points per contest while Stephanie Sherwood rounds out the top scorers with 10.4 points.
 
As a team, the Saints are shooting 40% from the field and 30% from long range. They are 3rd in the league with an average of 74.2 points per game while committing the least amount of turnovers per contest at 12.9. They are also ranked 2nd in the GLVC with a 4.04 turnover ratio and 3rd in assists/turnover ratio at 1.08.

The Miners have struggled against the Saints in the past, only going 7-11 against Maryville in the past. The last S&T win came in the 2016-2017 season when the Miners forced 20 Maryville turnovers and converted 21 points off those turnovers. The 54-47 win was the Miners first GLVC win that season.

The two teams met for the first time this season just two weeks ago in Gibson Arena where the Miners held the Saints to just seven points through the first 15 minutes of the game. Maryville would finish the final five minutes of the first half on a 19-4 run to cut the Miners lead to 30-26. After a long offensive drought, the Saints found their rhythm and came back hot in the second half where they would take the 71-65 win.

About Missouri-St. Louis:
Missouri-St. Louis (11-13, 5-10 GLVC) is currently on a four-game losing streak that was extended this past Saturday when Indianapolis just barely scraped by them with the 66-63 win. They will face (1) Drury University on Thursday night before hosting the Miners on Saturday afternoon.

The Tritons looked at a 13-point deficit early in the 4^th quarter after Alexa Bailey of UIndy drained a short jumper in the paint.

Three consecutive three-pointers from UMSL's McKenzie Lathrom put the Tritons down 58-54 with 5:22 left in the game. Another three-pointer from Arielle Jackson three minutes later put the heat on the Greyhounds as they saw their double-digit lead turn into a one point game. Indianapolis' Laura Thomas would sink four free-throws in the last 20 seconds of the game to secure the Greyhounds win.

The Tritons are led by Arielle Jackson's 14.2 points contest, which is 7^th in the GLVC while Alex LaPorta leads the team and the league with 10.2 rebounds per game.

As a team, UMSL is shooting 39.7% from the field and is forcing their opponents into just over 16 turnovers a game. They currently rank 7^th in the GLVC in scoring defense (65.1), 6^th in steals per game (9.0), and 7^th in three-point field goal percentage-defense (32.4).

The Miners lead the all-time series against the Tritons 39-23 with the most recent win coming just two weeks ago in Gibson Arena when Jordan Kabetske (Republic, Mo./Republic) came off the bench for a game-high 16 points. She secured S&T's 60-49 win with seven of her 16 points coming in the final five minutes of the game, five of the seven coming from the charity stripe.

The last time S&T defeated UMSL on their home court was back in 2015 when the Miners had an explosive second half and held the Tritons to just 22 points in the final 20 minutes of the game. Both the Tritons and the Miners struggled to score in the first half, looking at a 19-15 score heading into halftime. The Miners would have an explosive second half, shooting 45% from the field and holding UMSL to just 22 points and 6-25 shooting to take the 53-41 win.