ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will open a three-game homestand Thursday night with a matchup against one of its biggest rivals, as Drury will make an appearance at Gibson Arena for a 7:30 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference contest.

The Miners will look to get back into the win column after suffering a loss Saturday at Southwest Baptist and will face a Panther team – one it defeated earlier this season in Springfield – that has lost its two most recent games to SBU.  S&T comes into Thursday's matchup at 3-10 on the season and did win its most recent home game when it knocked off William Jewell on Jan. 16.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) continues to lead the Miners in scoring with an average of 16.8 points per game and ranks 10^th in the GLVC in that department, while Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) is averaging 12.6 points per game and Kevin Legardy (Las Vegas, NV/Canyon Springs) comes in with a mark of 11.8 points per contest.  Legardy is also S&T's top rebounder with 5.9 per game, while Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) has hauled in 5.2 per game while leading the Miners in steals and assists.

Froebe enters the game leading both the GLVC and NCAA Division II in total steals with 36; his average of 2.7 per game is tops in the conference.  Froebe also has 50 assists to pace S&T, while Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) sits fifth in the league with his 15 blocked shots while shooting 51.5 percent from the field.

ABOUT DRURY: The Panthers enter Thursday's contest at 5-5 on the season after they lost to Southwest Baptist on Tuesday for the second time in five days.  After losing 75-63 in Bolivar last Thursday, Drury suffered its worst home loss since 1967 and second-worst ever in a GLVC game when it lost 81-46 in the rematch on Tuesday.  Victor Nwagbarachoa was the only Panther to score in double figures with 10 points as Drury made only 33.3 percent of its shots overall and only three-of-20 from three-point range.

Conley Garrison continues to lead Drury in scoring with an average of 17.3 points per game, a mark that ranks sixth in the GLVC, while Jason Montgomery also ranks among the conference scoring leaders with his average of 16.9 points per contest.  Montgomery is tied for the GLVC lead in three-pointers made per game at 3.3 and is shooting 51.6 percent from three-point range, the third-best mark in the conference; his 53.3 field goal percentage mark ranks 12th in the GLVC.

Garrison, meanwhile, is sixth in the league with 2.7 treys per game -- Drury has made 8.2 per game at a rate of 38.9 percent.  He is also second in the conference in assists with 51 (5.1 per game) and is second in the GLVC in steals per game with 2.5.  Garrison, Montgomery and Malek Davis have accounted for 70 of the Panthers' 82 three-pointers this season.

Missouri S&T beat Drury 96-89 in the Dec. 18 matchup in Springfield, as the trio of Smith, Legardy and Ryan Parker (Bloomington, IN/Ridgeview) combined for 70 points.   Garrison had 25 points to lead Drury in the first meeting.