ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will look to snap a three-game losing streak as it heads back into action this week, facing a nationally-ranked team for the first time this year before returning to Gibson Arena to take on the last team it defeated.

The Miners will head to Kirksville, Mo., to play 12^th-ranked Truman State on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m., then returns to its home floor Saturday evening for a 6 p.m. contest against William Jewell, whom the Miners defeated 78-74 on Dec. 20 for their most recent win.

Missouri S&T brings a 2-8 record into Thursday's Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup after an 81-72 loss Saturday to Quincy.  The Miners struggled from the floor for the second straight game as they shot just 38.9 percent from the field.  Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) had a game-high 23 points for the Miners in defeat and made four three-pointers along the way to increase his season total to 28, the second-most in the conference.

Smith currently ranks sixth in the GLVC in scoring with an average of 17.9 points per game and is shooting 38.4 percent from beyond the three-point line.  He is one of four double figure scorers for S&T along with Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs), who is scoring 13.6 points per contest, Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) at 12.8 per game and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) at an even 10 per outing.

Legardy also leads the Miners in rebounding with 6.2 per game, while Froebe ranks among the GLVC leaders in assists, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio.  Froebe, who is ranked seventh in the last of those categories, has a league-high 27 steals and has 45 assists; his per-game average ranks sixth in the conference.  In addition, Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) is the GLVC leader in blocked shots with 14 on the season.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE: The Bulldogs come into Thursday's contest sporting an 8-1 record and are currently ranked 12th in the latest NABC/Division II poll released on Tuesday.  Truman has won its last three games following its only loss of the season to Maryville on New Year's Eve, including a 74-53 rout at Drury on Saturday behind 17 points from Cade McKnight.

McKnight leads the Bulldogs in scoring with an average of 17.9 points per game and is one of five Truman players averaging in double figures on the year.  Freshman guard Masen Miller is averaging 13.9 per game, while Dylan Peeters is scoring 13.2 per contest and Elijah Hazekamp, a transfer from North Dakota, is at 11.8 per game.

Turner Scott, the fifth double figure scorer at 11.6 per game, leads the Bulldogs in assists with 54 -- the most total assists in the GLVC -- and is shooting 50 percent from three-point range where the Bulldogs are connecting on a league-best 41.1 percent of their tries. 

The Bulldogs currently rank second in the GLVC in scoring with an average of 80 points per game and are the top shooting team overall in the conference at 51.1 percent.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL: Since winning their season opener at Indianapolis, the Cardinals have dropped six straight games which includes the first meeting with Missouri S&T in Liberty on Dec. 20.  The loss to the Miners was the closest in those six games -- a four-point S&T win -- but Jewell also played nationally-ranked Truman State to a five-point game last week in Kirksville.

Eysan Wiley, who missed the first meeting with the Miners, leads the Cardinals in scoring with an average of 16.2 points per game and is coming off back-to-back 23-point efforts.  He is also second on the team in assists with 17 to Mason Alexander, who has 18 assists on the year and is averaging 14.1 points per game.

Alexander had a game-high 25 points in the first matchup with the Miners and is shooting 42.9 percent from the field on the year as well as 53.7 percent overall.  William Jewell's third double figure scorer is freshman Grant Stubbs, who is averaging 11.2 points per game.  Stubbs is also pulling down 6.8 rebounds per game, second only to Jackson
Golightly's seven per contest.

The Cardinals enter the week as the only team in the GLVC shooting below 40 percent from the field as a team and they also rank last in the conference from three-point range at 28.2 percent.  However, they had their second-best shooting day of the season in both categories in the first matchup against S&T.