By: John Kean, Athletic Communications Director
ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will open the home portion of its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Saturday when it plays host to Illinois Springfield in a 3 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena.
Following its 81-68 win over Principia on Tuesday, S&T will bring a 6-2 overall record into Saturday's matchup and is 1-2 in conference play, with both losses coming to teams that were ranked in the national top 25 heading into the game. Illinois Springfield received votes in this week's national poll and brings a five-game winning streak into the contest; the Prairie Stars are 8-1 overall and tied with Missouri-St. Louis atop the GLVC standings at 3-0.
S&T got back into the win column on Tuesday thanks to big games from
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) and
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville), as the duo combined to score 48 points in the game. Smith had a season-high 26 points and went six-of-11 from three-point range to raise his seasonal scoring average to 18.5 points per game – which currently leads the GLVC. He has also made a team-best 23 baskets from beyond the arc and ranks among the top 10 in the conference in both three-pointers per game and three-point percentage.
Okeke recorded his first double-double as a Miner with 22 points and 11 rebounds and ranks eighth in the league in scoring with his average of 15.3 points per game, while also ranking in the top 10 in rebounding with a team-high 6.9 per outing.
The Miners have two additional double-figure scorers in
Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) at 12 points per game – he also has the top field goal percentage mark in the GLVC of 64.8 percent and is ranked in the top 10 in the conference in rebounding and steals – and
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) with an average of 11.5 points per contest. Williams is also fourth in the GLVC in steals and sixth in assists, while owning the fourth-best assists-to-turnover ratio in the conference.
S&T continues to rank high in the GLVC in several team categories, including leading the conference in scoring at 84.4 points per game and rebounding margin at plus six per game. The Miners are also second in scoring margin at plus 17 points per game, field goal percentage at 49.8 percent and steals with 8.8 per game.
The Miners rank among the top 20 in NCAA Division II in turnover margin as they rank 13
th by forcing six more turnovers per game than they have committed, while ranking just outside the top 20 in points per game, scoring margin and field goal percentage.
ABOUT ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: The Prairie Stars are out of the gate at 8-1, their best nine-game start in program history and have won their last five games which includes three in GLVC play. The last three wins for UIS have come in conference games with wins over Lewis, Quincy and Truman State; Saturday's game at S&T will be the Prairie Stars' first away from home.
UIS has had balanced scoring at the outset of the season with four players averaging between 9.6 and 11.8 points per game, led by Jack Weber's 11.8 mark. Weber has shot 56.3 percent from the field which ranks fourth in the conference and is also the top rebounder with 7.4 per contest.
Michael Wright is scoring 10.3 per game and owns the top three-point shooting percentage in the league at 46.9 percent as he has made 23-of-49 from beyond the arc, while Keith Johnson is also in double figures at 10.2 per game. Jordan Rice is also scoring 9.6 points per game and leads the Prairie Stars with 32 assists. The Prairie Stars also come into play with the best assist-to-turnover mark in the GLVC and third-best in NCAA Division II at plus 2.00, while also ranking sixth nationally with an average of 11.1 three-pointers per game.
