ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team heads to the road for the final time in the 2019-20 season this weekend as the Miners head into the state of Illinois for a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests.

The Miners, who are 5-15 overall and 3-11 in the GLVC after splitting two games last week, will face Illinois Springfield in the state capitol Thursday night to open the road trip, then head to the Chicago suburbs for a Saturday contest against Lewis.  Thursday's game will get underway at 7:30 p.m., while Saturday's road finale in Romeoville, Ill., is slated for a 3 p.m. start.

The Miners got two big games from Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) last week, as he poured in 23 points in the Miners' victory over McKendree and followed that up with a season-high 25 points Saturday in a loss to Southern Indiana at Gibson Arena.  Scott enters the week as S&T's leading scorer with an average of 15.3 points per game as he also continues to move closer to the 1,000-point mark in his Miner career.

Scott is among three Miners averaging in double figures at the start of the week along with CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) with his mark of 12.6 points per contest and Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) at 11.5 per game.  Hedgepeth and Fairless lead the Miners in other categories, with Fairless leading the way on the boards with 5.7 per outing and Hedgepeth leading S&T with 47 three-pointers, 64 assists and 34 steals.

Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) has made 46 three-pointers on the year for the Miners and ranks ninth in three-point percentage in the GLVC at 43.8 percent.

ABOUT ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: The Prairie Stars enter play this week at 12-10 overall, but are 5-9 in the GLVC following losses last week to Southwest Baptist and Drury.  UIS was tied with Drury with 3:06 to play, but was outscored 13-5 down the stretch in the 86-78 loss.  The two losses came on the heels of back-to-back wins over top-25 teams as the Prairie Stars knocked off Bellarmine and Indianapolis in their last homestand; UIS is 9-3 at home this season.

Daniel Soetan, who missed the game at Drury, leads the Prairie Stars with an average of 17.7 points per game; he currently ranks fifth in the GLVC in scoring.  He is among five players averaging in double figures for a UIS team that is averaging 79.1 points per game, as freshman Chase Robinson is scoring 14.5 per game and Keymonta Johnson is at 13.8 points per contest with a team-leading 6.9 rebounds a game and 63 assists.

Jesus Castillo, whose three-pointer in the waning moments gave the Prairie Stars their win over Bellarmine, leads the GLVC with 76 three-pointers and is shooting 46.6 percent from beyond the arc.  Castillo is scoring 11.7 points per game and the fifth double figure scorer is Matt Wending with 10.1 points per game.

ABOUT LEWIS: The Flyers are in the mix for one of the last playoff spots in the GLVC and picked up an important road win Saturday in that quest when they won 78-60 at Southwest Baptist.  Anthony D'Avanzo led Lewis with 21 points as he made nine of his 11 shots from the field; the Flyers shot 58.8 percent from the floor in the victory.

D'Avanzo leads his team averages of 15.4 points and eight rebounds per game and one of four Flyers scoring in double figures for the season.  Adam Pischke, who added 18 points in the win at SBU, is scoring 11.3 points per contest and has a team-best 82 assists, while Dre Bell is averaging 11.3 per game as well and Artese Stapleton is at 10 points per outing.

The Flyers, 11-11 overall and 6-8 in the GLVC, are shooting 37.7 percent from three-point range and have four players averaging more than one per game, led by D'Avanzo with 45 and Bell with 42.