ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's basketball will look to bounce back after a tough opening weekend as it opens a stretch of seven of eight games at Gibson Arena with two contests on its home floor this week.

The Miners will take on Principia in their home opener Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., then host Missouri Baptist in a 1 p.m. game on Saturday in their final game before the start of the Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule on Nov. 25 against Missouri-St. Louis.

S&T fell to 20^th-ranked Ferris State and Ohio Dominican at the Midwest Regional Crossover at McKendree over the weekend, as cold shooting in both games proved to be costly.  The Miners made just 29.1 percent of their attempts in the loss to Ferris State, then were ice cold in the second and fourth quarters Saturday against Ohio Dominican as they finished the game at 30.4 percent from the field.

Eryn Puett (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) scored in double figures for S&T in both games, leading the Miners with a career-high 14 points on Friday and following it up with an 11-point outing Saturday.  Puett, who averaged 12.5 points in the two games, shot 52.6 percent from the field in those contests and is also the team's second-leading rebounder behind Katelynne Roberts (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) with 6.5 per game.

Roberts also scored in double figures Saturday with 10 points on Saturday and is averaging 8.5 rebounds per game after recording a double-double against ODU with 10 rebounds.  The Miners' leading scorer Saturday was Franchesca Metz (Downers Grove, IL/Nazareth Academy), who led the way with 12 points and is scoring eight per game on the year, while Chorus Davis (Kansas City, MO/Lincoln College Prep) had four assists and five steals in the two games.

ABOUT PRINCIPIA:  The Panthers opened their season Monday with a 91-66 loss at Knox College, a game in which they fell behind 45-26 at the half as Knox shot 64.7 percent in the first quarter and ended up at 53.1 percent for the game.  Principia was led by Taylor Brown with 12 points, while Alana Hinson and Ariana Williams finished with 10 apiece, but also allowed 50 points in the paint on the night.

Principia is coming off a 12-12 season that also saw it finish at .500 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  Principia returns its top two scorers in Brown, who averaged 14.5 points per game a year ago and Williams, who scored 12.1 points per contest during the 2022-23 season.   Two additional double figure scorers from last season – Paige Fowler (10.7) and Hinson (10.3) – are also back on the Principia roster this season.

The Miners defeated the Panthers 73-45 when they met last December at S&T.

ABOUT MISSOURI BAPTIST: The Spartans picked up their first win of the season last week with an 88-51 win over St. Ambrose, getting 15 points from Aliyah Williams as they shot 51.5 percent from the field and connected nine times from three-point range.  Tyler Butler was also in double figures with 10 points and leads the Spartans (1-2) with an average of 11.7 points per game on the season.

MBU, who opened the season with losses to Mount Mercy and Mid-America Nazarene, will play two GLVC teams in exhibition contests this week as they will face Southwest Baptist Tuesday and Drury Thursday.