ROLLA, Mo. – A stretch of the schedule that has seen Missouri S&T's men's basketball team play away from home quite a bit will come to a close this week, as the Miners will head to Kansas City Thursday to face Rockhurst before opening a four-game homestand Saturday with a visit from William Jewell.

The Miners and Rockhurst will face off in a Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup at 7:30 p.m., at Mason-Halpin Field House before William Jewell comes into Gibson Arena for Saturday's 3 p.m. contest.  Saturday's contest will not only open the homestand, but begin a season-ending stretch that will see S&T play six of its final eight games on its home court.

Missouri S&T bounced back from a pair of losses earlier in the week to down Quincy 72-65 on Saturday to move back above the .500 mark in GLVC play at 6-5; the Miners are 12-7 overall and have already surpassed their win total from last season.  The Miners held Quincy to 33.8 percent shooting in the contest and never trailed in the second half.

Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) led S&T with 19 points and comes into the week as the Miners' second-leading scorer on the season with an average of 15.5 points per game.  Williams continues to rank among the conference leaders in not only scoring, but also field goal percentage where he is third at 57.5 percent, three-point percentage as he ranks second at 51 percent, assists and steals, where is ranked among the top five in the conference in both categories.

S&T's leading scorer continues to be Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) with an average of 16.6 points per game, a mark that ranks third in the GLVC.  Smith also enters the week ranked in a tie for sixth the conference in three-pointers made with 47 (2.5 per game). The Miners have two additional double figure scorers in Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) with an average of 14.8 points per contest and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), who is scoring 11.7 per game.  Froebe is ranked fourth in the conference in field goal percentage at 57.4 percent and Okeke is just outside the top 10 in the GLVC in both scoring and rebounding, where he averages a team-best 6.1 per outing.

The Miners continue to lead the GLVC in scoring with an average of 83.2 points per game and are second in field goal percentage with a mark of 48.8 percent with four of their starters – Williams, Froebe, Okeke and Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) -- shooting better than 50 percent from the field.  

ABOUT ROCKHURST: The Hawks, who were picked to finish last in the GLVC in the pre-season coaches poll, find themselves in the middle of the pack in the conference standings at 5-5 in league play and 10-8 overall.  Rockhurst has lost its last two contests, the latest being a 92-66 setback at the hands of Southwest Baptist last Thursday; the Hawks were idle on Saturday.

Rockhurst has the GLVC's leading scorer in Rich Byhre as he is averaging 19.2 points per contest and shooting 55.8 percent from the field, while also sitting second in the league in rebounding with 9.4 per game.  The Hawks have two others averaging in double figures in Timaris Brown with a mark of 10.8 points per contest and Jake Auer, who is scoring 10.4 per game.  Auer leads the Hawks in three-point baskets with 37, while Jihad Thornton has a team-high 39 assists. 

As a team, the Hawks have been the best team in the GLVC at defending the three-point shot as opposing teams are shooting just 32.9 percent from beyond the arc.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL: The Cardinals are also above the .500 mark on the season at 10-9 on the year prior to a home game on Thursday against 19th-ranked Missouri-St. Louis and are 7-4 in the GLVC following an 85-69 win over Southwest Baptist Saturday.  Jewell led nearly wire-to-wire in that game and got 22 points from its leading scorer on the season, Jordan Jermain, in the victory.

Jermain comes into the week averaging 15.8 points per game – the fifth-best mark in the GLVC – and is among three double figure scorers for the Cardinals along with Mason Alexander at 11.9 points per game and Kobe McKinley at 10.9 per contest.  Jermain and Alexander have combined for 101 three-point baskets this season, with Alexander ranking fifth in the conference with his 2.8 per game (54 total) and Jermain in a tie with S&T's Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) for sixth.

The Cardinals also have the GLVC leader in rebounding in Heri Tshiyoyo with an average of 9.5 per game; he is also second in the league in blocked shots with 21.