ROLLA, Mo. – Following a loss in the opening game of its four-game homestand, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will seek to rebound this week as it continues the stretch of games at Gibson Arena with matchups against Drury and Southwest Baptist.

Both of this week's home contests will have special events attached to them, beginning with Thursday's 7:30 p.m. game with Drury that will be White Out Night at Gibson Arena as fans are encouraged to wear white to the game.  On Saturday, when the Miners take on SBU at 3 p.m., it will be Military Appreciation Day as all military members – active or retired – and their immediate families will be admitted free with their military identification card.

The Miners come into Thursday's game looking to snap a two-game losing streak and get back to the .500 mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.  S&T, who is 12-9 overall, dropped a 93-90 decision at Rockhurst and then fell 77-60 to William Jewell on Saturday to fall to 6-7 in the GLVC.  The Miners are currently sixth in the GLVC's Point Rating System to determine the eight teams that will qualify for the conference tournament in March.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) moved into a tie for 10^th place on the Miners' all-time scoring list on Saturday with his 1,228 career points and continues to lead S&T in scoring with an average of 15.9 points per game, the third-best mark in the GLVC.  The Miners have two others among the top nine in the conference in scoring in Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove), who is eighth with his average of 15.1 points per contest and Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville), who is scoring 15 per game and had a career-high 30 points in the game at Rockhurst last week.

Williams continues to rank high in the conference in several other categories as well, where he is second in three-point percentage at 49.1 percent on the year, third in field goal percentage at 57.5 percent, sixth in assists with 3.9 per game and tied for sixth in steals with Smith at 1.5 per game.

All five of the Miners who have been in the starting lineup over the past 10 games are ranked in the top 10 in some category.  Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) – who is also in double figures in the scoring column with an average of 11.2 points per game – is second in steals with 1.9 per game and sixth in field goal percentage at 54.5 percent, while Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) ranks fourth in field goal shooting at 55.7 percent and is seventh in blocked shots with 19 on the year.

The Miners continue to lead the GLVC in scoring with an average of 82.4 points per game and are second in field goal percentage with a mark of 48.4 percent.

ABOUT DRURY: The Panthers enter Thursday's contest at 7-14 overall and 3-10 in the GLVC, with losses in their last three games and all by double figure margins.  Drury lost 82-67 at Southwest Baptist on Thursday, then fell 81-64 Saturday to Rockhurst in Kansas City despite getting 18 points from Logan Applegate as it made just 36.2 percent of its field goal attempts.

Applegate leads the Panthers in scoring with an average of 12.6 points per game, while Quenton Shelton is averaging 10.4 per game and Adam Moore, who also scored 14 in the loss at Rockhurst, is at 10.3 per game.  The Panthers have been heavily reliant on the three-point shot, as they have made a league-best 9.7 per game and are third in the GLVC with a mark of 37.2 percent from beyond the arc.

Four Drury players have made at least 30 three-point shots this season -- Applegate has a team-high 49 -- and the Panthers made 14 threes in the first meeting with S&T this season. The Panthers, however, rank at the bottom of the GLVC in field goal and three-point defense, as opposing teams have shot 47.9 percent overall and 39 percent from long range.

ABOUT SOUTHWEST BAPTIST: The Bearcats are 14-6 overall but bring a 6-6 conference record into play this week; SBU will play at Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday before taking on the Miners Saturday afternoon.  The Bearcats have had two five-game winning streaks this season, but have alternated wins and losses since the second of those streaks ended and are coming in off an 82-67 win over Drury last Thursday.

Quinn Nelson leads a trio of Bearcats in double figures with an average of 14.7 points per game and is one of the top three-point shooters in the GLVC, as he has connected 58 times on the season and has made 43.9 percent of his attempts from outside the arc.  RJ Crawford is averaging 12.7 points per game and Noah Franklin is scoring 11.2 points per outing; Franklin had a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds in SBU's 78-75 win over S&T in the conference opener in November.

SBU's rebounding leader is Mitch Ganote with 6.9 per game and he also leads the GLVC with 110 assists.  Ganote is one of seven players in NCAA Division II that has recorded a triple-double this season.  The Bearcats also have the national leader in free throw shooting in Drenin Dinkins, who has made 72-of-76 at the line this season (94.7 percent).