ROLLA, Mo. – A new-look Missouri S&T women's basketball team play for the first time before an audience Wednesday night as the Miners will take on Saint Louis University in an exhibition contest in St. Louis.  Tip-off at Chaifetz Arena is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Wednesday's exhibition is the lone pre-season game for the Miners before their season opener against Ferris State on Nov. 10 in Lebanon, Ill.  It will be the unveiling of a team that has almost an equal mix of returners and newcomers to the roster for the upcoming year.

Missouri S&T finished 15-14 overall and 11-9 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference last season, finishing fifth in the standings and recording its first winning season in a decade.  However, the top four scorers from that unit – including the top two point scorers in school history -- have graduated, so the Miners will need to find scoring from new sources in the upcoming season.

The top returning scorer for S&T is Anna Finley (Owensville, MO/Owensville), who averaged 7.1 points per game in her freshman season.  The Miners also return veteran players Katelynne Roberts (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville), Eryn Puett (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) and Jade Lindesmith, all of whom have been starters during their S&T careers, as well as returners Addyson Kent (North Vernon, IN/Jennings County) and Chorus Davis (Kansas City, MO/Lincoln College Prep).

Roberts, who started seven games a year ago, averaged 3.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while blocking 13 shots last season, while Puett averaged more than 12 minutes per game and added 2.6 points per outing.  Lindesmith was in the starting lineup at the beginning of the season, but suffered a season-ending injury three games into the campaign.

Kent was one of the top contributors off the bench for S&T last season, connecting 28 times from three-point range, while Davis had 18 assists and 14 steals.  S&T also returns junior Lilli Machado (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell) and sophomore Morgan Luebbering (Jefferson Ciy, MO/Fatima) to the squad this year.

The group of newcomers includes three transfers and three freshmen.

Among the transfers, Bonnie Lew Ludlow (Indianapolis, IN/Covenant Christian) was a double-figure scorer in both of her seasons at Southwestern Illinois College, averaging 14.8 points, five assists and three assists per game last year after scoring 12.6 points a game as a freshman.  Franchesca Metz (Downers Grove, IL/Nazareth Academy) came to S&T from Morton College, where she scored 9.6 points per game a year ago and helped lead her team to the National Junior College Athletics Association national tournament for the third year in succession.

The third transfer is Tessa McMahon (Chatfield, MN/Chatfield), who spent her freshman season at the University of Minnesota Duluth and scored 252 points during her senior year at the high school level in 2021-22.

The freshman class includes Norah Gum (Waterloo, IL/Waterloo), who was the sixth-leading scorer among high school players in the St. Louis area last season with an average of 20.4 points per game; Gabi Burgess (Bloomingdale, IL/Lake Park), who had averages of 11.2 points, 3.1 assists and 2.9 steals per game as a high school senior in the Chicago area; and Addison Hopkins (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge), who shot 47 percent from inside the three-point line and 85 percent at the free throw line for a state finalist team at Rock Bridge High School.

ABOUT SAINT LOUIS: The Billikens finished the 2022-23 season with a 17-18 record, but made a stunning run through the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament to capture the title and win the league's automatic bid.  Saint Louis lost in the opening round of the tournament to Tennessee, a loss that ended a six-game winning streak leading into the contest.

SLU was picked to finish third in the A-10 this season and had three of its players named to pre-season all-conference teams in the conference.  Kyla McMakin, who was fourth in the league in scoring with an average of 17.2 points per game last season, was a first-team selection and Julia Martinez was a second-team pick after scoring 9.7 points and pulling down 7.7 rebounds per game.

Martinez was also named to the A-10's all-defensive team along with Kennedy Calhoun, who recorded 71 steals a year ago.