ROLLA, Mo. – After returning to Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a pair of victories last week, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team embarks on a road trip over the holiday weekend that will see it play three conference games over a span of five days.

The road swing gets underway Thursday when the Miners take on 24^th-ranked Indianapolis in a matchup of teams that currently sit in a tie for third place in the GLVC standings at 4-2; that game gets underway at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.  S&T will follow that contest with a game Saturday afternoon against Lewis in Romeoville, Ill. (3 p.m. tipoff), then wraps up the weekend trip by facing Illinois Springfield Monday at 2 p.m. in Springfield, Ill.

Missouri S&T extended its winning streak to three games and moved to 10-4 on the season with wins over Maryville and McKendree at Gibson Arena last week.  The Miners rallied from an eight-point second half deficit to knock off the Saints 87-83, then shot a season-best 62.1 percent from the field two days later in their 94-77 win over McKendree.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) had a season-high 28 in the win over Maryville and followed that up with a 25-point effort against McKendree to up his seasonal scoring average to 18.4 points per game, second only to Rockhurst's Rich Byhre's mark of 19.9.  Smith is among four Miners averaging in double figures on the season, as Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) is scoring 15.3 points per contest, Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) is at 14.6 per game and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) is scoring 12.3 a contest.

All four of those Miners had at least one 20-point game last week and also rank among the GLVC leaders in a variety of categories.  Besides being second in the league in scoring, Smith is fifth in three-pointers per game (2.8), sixth in three-point percentage (36.4 percent) and steals (1.6 per game) and seventh in free throw shooting (80 percent).

Williams is fifth in scoring and assists with four per game, while also sitting third in steals with 1.9 per game, fourth in field goal percentage at 58.3 percent and ninth in free throw percentage.

Okeke is in the top 10 in scoring as well as he ranks ninth, while also ranking eighth in field goal percentage at 53.9 percent and 10^th in rebounding with 6.4 per game, while Froebe leads a contingent of three Miners among the top six in steals with 2.2 per game that is good for second.  Froebe is also shooting 63 percent from the field, but has not made enough field goals to qualify among the conference or national leaders.

The Miners continue to lead the GLVC in scoring with an average of 86.6 points per game, good for 16^th in NCAA Division II and is second in the conference in field goal percentage at 50.7 percent after Saturday's shooting performance.

ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS: The Greyhounds, who moved back into the national rankings on Tuesday at No. 24, enter Thursday's game on a six-game winning streak and are 12-2 on the season after an 89-76 win at Drury Saturday.  UIndy, who got 23 points from Jesse Bingham and 22 from Bruno Williams in Saturday's win, has been the stingiest defensive team in the GLVC this season as it has allowed a league-low 61.5 points per game and 64.8 per game over the course of its current winning streak.

Bingham enters the week as the GLVC's third-leading scorer with an average of 16.1 points per game as he is shooting 48.5 percent from the floor and also leads the Greyhounds with 39 assists.  Kendrick Tchoua is the only other UIndy player in double figures in the scoring column with his mark of 12.6 points per contest.

UIndy has held its opponents to 38.5 percent shooting from the field – the lowest mark in the GLVC and sixth-lowest in the nation – and has the league's top scoring margin of plus 17.4 points per game.  The Greyhounds have also outrebounded their opponents by nearly eight per game, with Tchoua leading the way with an average of 7.6 per game.

ABOUT LEWIS: The Flyers come into play this week with records of 5-8 overall and 1-5 in the GLVC; Lewis will face Drury Thursday before the Miners come into Neil Carey Arena for Saturday's matchup.  After splitting a pair of non-conference games to resume its schedule after the winter break, Lewis dropped a 77-65 decision Saturday at Southwest Baptist.

Beau Frericks, who led the Flyers with 14 points on Saturday, leads the team in scoring with an average of 14.7 points per contest and is also his team's top three-point shooters at 41.3 percent as he has made a team-high 26 treys.  Jemere Hill is also in double figures in scoring at 12.3 points per contest while leading the Flyers with 36 assists and 24 steals.  Atakan Sahinkaya, who is just outside of double figures in scoring, leads his squad with an average of 5.5 rebounds per game.

Lewis, which has played four of its six conference games away from home thus far, is shooting 45.9 percent as a team but is giving up 8.6 three-point baskets per game as opposing teams are shooting better than 35 percent from beyond the arc.

ABOUT ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: The Prairie Stars opened the season with wins in eight of their first nine contests, but since losing at Missouri S&T on Dec. 10, have dropped four of their last five games and enter play this week at 9-5 overall and 3-3 in the GLVC.  UIS will host Southwest Baptist and Drury in home games prior to Monday's game with the Miners in Springfield.

Jack Weber is the lone double figure scorer for the Prairie Stars with an average of 13.1 points per game and he is also among the league leaders in field goal percentage at 59.6 percent.  Weber also shares the team's rebounding lead with 6.6 per game with Jacob Hanna and is second to Hanna in steals with 13.

Keith Johnson is scoring 9.3 points per contest and Jordan Rice is at 9.1 per game, while Michael Wright has a team-high 30 three-point baskets and is hitting 45.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.  Max Kunnert, who scored a season-high 22 points in the first meeting with S&T, is shooting 43.8 percent from long range and has hit 28 this season for a team that is making a league-high 10.6 per game.