ROLLA, Mo. – Two weeks remain in the Great Lakes Valley Conference season and Missouri S&T's men's basketball team finds itself in the middle of a wild race for a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament heading into a pair of critical road contests this weekend.

The Miners will play their final road games of the regular season when they take on McKendree Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Lebanon, Ill., and close the road slate Saturday against Maryville at 3 p.m. in St. Louis.   Missouri S&T, 14-10 overall and 8-8 in the GLVC, comes into the week sitting eighth in the conference's point rating system standings that will determine the eight tournament participants.

S&T's opponents this week are immediately behind them in those standings, as McKendree is ninth and just 0.03 points in back of the Miners, while Maryville is tied for 10th at 0.16 points behind S&T.

The Miners are coming off a thrilling 76-75 come-from-behind win over Missouri-St. Louis last Thursday, as they overcame a 16-point halftime deficit and a 10-point difference with four minutes remaining.  S&T scored the final nine points of the game to pull out the win, getting the winning basket on a lay-up by Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) led the Miners with 20 points in the win over UMSL and continues to lead the Miners in scoring with an average of 15.8 points per game.  Williams, who was just a rebound short of a triple-double in the game, is averaging 15.1 points per game and is third in the GLVC in three-point shooting at 44.6 percent.  Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) is also in double figures with his average of 15 points per game – he is also S&T's top rebounder with six per contest – as is Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) with his mark of 10.6 points per game.

Besides his three-point shooting, Williams continues to rank high in the conference in several other categories as well, where he is sixth in field goal percentage at 55.6 percent, fourth in assists with four per game and tied for third in steals with 38.  Williams is three assists away from becoming the first Miner in six seasons to reach 100 in a year.

Froebe is second in the GLVC in steals with 40, while Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) ranks fourth in field goal shooting at 57.4 percent and is third in blocked shots with 26 on the season.  Meanwhile, Smith is eighth in three-pointers with 2.3 per game, tied for seventh in steals with 34 and among the top 10 in free throw percentage at 82.4 percent. Okeke is just outside the top 10 in field goal percentage, ranking 11^th at 52.8 percent.

The Miners continue to lead the GLVC in scoring with an average of 81.1 points per game and are second in field goal percentage with a mark of 48.5 percent after recording their 11^th game at 50 percent or better against the Tritons.

ABOUT McKENDREE: The Bearcats bring a 12-11 record into Thursday's contest – they, like the Miners, are 8-8 in the GLVC – but have won three of their last four games which includes an 80-75 win at Rockhurst on Saturday.  Bryson Bultman scored a game-high 32 points in the win for McKendree and increased his team-high scoring average for the season to 16.6 points per game as a result.

Bultman is the second-leading scorer in the GLVC entering play this week and is one of several Bearcats that have been solid from three-point range.  McKendree is averaging 9.2 treys per game, the third-best average in the GLVC, and has one of the top gunners from long range in Eric Powell, who has made 65 on the year at a clip of 42.2 percent.   Bultman has connected 38 times from long range, while Milos Vicentic, who is scoring 15.9 per game, has made 28 and is at 38 percent from beyond the arc.

The Miners won the earlier meeting with McKendree 94-77 at Gibson Arena as three Miners finished with at least 20 points, paced by Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) with 25.  Bultman had 24 points and Vicentic had 23 to head the Bearcat scoring efforts.

ABOUT MARYVILLE: Despite having an overall record above the .500 mark, the Saints are currently sitting outside the playoff race in a tie with Truman State for the 10^th spot heading into a home game Thursday with UMSL.  The Saints, who are 14-11 overall but 7-10 in the GLVC, were beaten 87-66 Saturday at Southwest Baptist as SBU connected 15 times from three-point range in the victory.

Ben Palacios leads two Saints in double figures on the season with an average of 13.8 points per game, while Dewayne Vass is scoring 11.4 per game.  Palacios has also made a team-high 52 three-point baskets and is shooting 38.2 percent from outside, while Jaeden Smith has made 41 percent of his three-point tries while making 44.  Maryville has four players who have made at least 30 three-point shots this season.
 
Missouri S&T edged the Saints 87-83 in the first meeting in Rolla on Jan. 5, as Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) had 28 points and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) had 22 to pace the Miners.  Vass had 21 to lead Maryville in that game.