ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T men's basketball team hits the road to complete its first semester schedule this weekend as it will take on Drury Friday in Springfield, Mo., and William Jewell Sunday afternoon in Liberty, Mo.

The Miners are still seeking their first victory of the 2020-21 season after dropping an 86-72 decision to Southwest Baptist Saturday at Gibson Arena, a loss that put S&T at 0-5 on the year.  Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) scored a career-high 23 points to pace the Miners in the game, while Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) added 16 points and Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) scored in double figures for the fifth straight time with 15.

Smith and Fairless are both ranked among the top 20 in the GLVC in scoring, with Smith leading the Miners with an average of 16.2 points per game and Fairless coming in at 15.6 per contest.  Smith is shooting 36.1 percent from three-point range, while Fairless has made 56.8 percent of his attempts from the field.

Legardy leads the Miners in the rebounding department with an average of 7.2 per game, while Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) continues to lead S&T with 27 assists and 18 steals; he currently leads the GLVC with 3.6 steals per game and is ranked fourth in assists per contest.  Froebe's 3.6 steals per game also rank fourth in NCAA Division II, while Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) has eight blocked shots, the most of any player in Division II.

Following Sunday's game, the Miners will be idle until Sunday, Jan. 3 when they host Illinois Springfield.

ABOUT DRURY: The Panthers will be taking the floor for the first time in the 2020-21 season after their first five scheduled games were postponed due to COVID protocols. The team that the Miners will face on Friday includes nine returners, headed by all-region and All-GLVC guard Conley Garrison, who averaged a team-high 18.2 points per game, shot 42.6 percent from three-point range and had 149 assists last winter.

Garrison, who averaged 19.5 points in the Panthers' 20 GLVC contests, was joined in the double figure column by Cal Hartley, who scored 12.9 points a game and ranked third in the GLVC in three-point percentage at 46.2 percent.  As a team, the Panthers were the GLVC's top three-point shooting team last season at 40.2 percent and made 9.9 per game, second only to Illinois Springfield's 12.3 per outing.

The Panthers, who finished 20-9 overall and 13-7 in the GLVC a year ago, also return a pair of front line veterans in Asa Hutchinson and Brandon Emmert, who combined to average just over 13 points and nearly seven rebounds per contest as well as Malek Davis, who shot 38 percent from three-point range in his freshman season at Drury.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL: The Cardinals are returning to the court this weekend after being off for two weeks due to COVID protocols and bring a 1-1 record into a Friday home contest against Southwest Baptist prior to facing the Miners Sunday afternoon.  William Jewell will also play an exhibition game Wednesday at Missouri State prior to Friday's game.

William Jewell opened its season the day after Thanksgiving with a 70-69 road victory at Indianapolis behind an 18-point showing by Mason Alexander, but lost 81-51 two days later at Southern Indiana.  Grant Stubbs led the Cardinals with 13 points in the USI contest.

Stubbs leads the Cardinals in scoring with an average of 14 points per game over the first two games of the season, while Alexander has averaged 13 per game and Carter Olsen 12 per contest.  Alexander is also tied for the team lead with Eysan Wiley with seven assists, while Jackson Golightly is the top rebounder with eight per game.

The Cardinals have shot just 36.7 percent from the field in their first two games and only 26.7 percent from three-point range, but held their first two opponents to just six-of-30 shooting (20 percent) from beyond the arc.