ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team has an opportunity to do something that hasn't happened in eight seasons on Saturday afternoon when the Miners take on Drury in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game in Springfield, Mo.  Game time for the contest is at 3 p.m. at the O'Reilly Family Events Center.

The 2013-14 season was the last in which a Miner team won four consecutive conference games, which the Miners can accomplish with a win Saturday over the Panthers on their home floor.  S&T is also seeking its fourth straight victory over Drury for the first time in close to a century and to push its record over the .500 mark at the 19-game mark of the season for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign.

The Miners, 9-9 overall and 5-6 in the GLVC, made it three in a row last Saturday with a 62-43 win over Rockhurst at Gibson Arena, as S&T answered a Hawk rally with a decisive 14-0 run in the second half to put the game away.  Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) continued his scoring outburst by scoring 24 to lead the Miners in the victory and got help on the offensive end from Alex Strating (Wassenaar, Netherlands/American School of the Hague) with 14 points, Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) with a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and nine assists from Dylan Singleton (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln).

Smith leads the GLVC in scoring heading into the weekend with an average of 20.3 points per game and is ranked among the top 10 in NCAA Division II with 64 three-point baskets (fifth) and his 3.6 three-pointers per game (fifth).   He is also among the league leaders in those categories as well as in free throw shooting at 82.7 percent and three-point shooting at 43 percent on the year.

Froebe is also averaging in double figures at 11.2 points per game as is Strating at 10.9 per contest and both rank among the GLVC leaders in other departments.  Strating leads the conference in field goal percentage at 62.4 percent, while Froebe leads the Miners with 38 steals and is fourth in the GLVC in that category.  Singleton also ranks eighth in the GLVC in steals with 27 and is one of three Miners with more than 40 assists this season after recording nine in the win over Rockhurst.

The Miners have a fifth player among the conference leaders in Mahamadou Kaba-Camera (Conakry, Guinea/Balboa City (San Diego, CA)) with 20 blocked shots, good for sixth in the GLVC.

ABOUT DRURY: The Panthers' schedule since the holiday break has been plagued by health and safety protocol shutdowns as they have played only three games since returning to action -- and are not scheduled to play until Saturday as their game with Maryville on Thursday has already been postponed.  In the contests they have played thus far on the season, Drury is 4-9 overall and 1-4 in the GLVC with the one conference win coming in its only home GLVC outing to date.

Drury has five players currently averaging in double figures, led by Malek Davis' 14.8 per game.  Davis has connected on 38.2 percent of his three-point shots with 34 successful attempts, while Quenton Shelton had made 29 at a rate of 38.7 percent as he is avearging 10.4 points per game.  Obi Okafor is averaging 10 points per game and is the leader in rebounding for the Panthers with six per contest.

The five double figure scorers for Drury -- which includes Clay Gayman at 12.2 points per game and Victor Nwagbarochoa's 10.5 per outing -- have accounted for 71 percent of the Panthers' points this season.

Besides leading the team in scoring, Davis is also the Panther leader in assists with 43, while Gayman has blocked a team-high 17 shots.