ROLLA, Mo. – With one-third of its Great Lakes Valley Conference now in the books, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team will look to move up in the conference standings as it will host a pair of games at Gibson Arena this weekend.

The Miners will take on Rockhurst Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m., before playing host to William Jewell Saturday in a 3 p.m. matchup.  S&T comes into the weekend in a three-way tie for ninth place in a tightly-contested conference race, where two games separate second place from 11^th.  The Miners will face one of the teams they are tied with in Rockhurst to open their weekend, with William Jewell one game in front of those teams.

S&T had one of its best all-around efforts of the season last Thursday in a 78-59 victory at Southwest Baptist, but hit a cold stretch at a critical moment Saturday and fell victim to a decisive 12-1 run that allowed Drury to break away for an eventual 89-82 win.  The loss dropped S&T to 9-5 overall and 3-4 in the GLVC heading into this weekend's action.

Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) rebounded from a six-point showing at SBU to score 23 to lead the Miners on Saturday and comes into play Thursday with a team-leading average of 14.8 points per game and is pulling down 6.4 rebounds per contest, just below Andrew Young's (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) mark of 6.6 per game.  Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) is also averaging 13.2 points per game while shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc and dishing out a team-leading 54 assists – second in the GLVC -- while Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) is at 13.1 points per game on the year with a team-high 29 three-point baskets.

Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), who shares the team lead in steals with Williams with 19, is scoring 9.9 points per game and Young is averaging 9.2 per game to go along with his 25 blocked shots that rank second in the conference.

ABOUT ROCKHURST: The Hawks have had a back-and-forth season as they come into play Thursday at 7-8 overall and 3-4 in the GLVC. Rockhurst has not won or lost more than two consecutive games at any point this season; it won its most recent outing by shooting 62.7 percent and connecting 16 times from three-point range in a 94-72 win over Lewis.

Jake Auer, who hit the go-ahead basket late in the Hawks' win over S&T last season in Kansas City, hit seven of the 16 threes in the win as he had a game-high 25 points.  Auer leads the Hawks with 32 three-point baskets, while Timaris Brown leads the way with an average of 14.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.  Rockhurst is also getting 12.6 points a game from Davit Kakushadze and 10.5 from Miles White, who is coming off a 21-point showing Saturday.  Brian Hawthorne leads the Hawks with 51 assists and 24 steals.

ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL: The Cardinals improved to 10-5 overall and 4-3 in the GLVC after handing league leader Indianapolis its first loss in conference play, pulling out a 73-71 win over the Greyhounds on Saturday in Liberty.  Jewell went up on a free throw by Kyle Scharbrough with 1:20 remaining and got an additional free throw from Isaac Patterson with six seconds left before a potential game-winning three-pointer by UIndy was off the mark.

Five players are averaging in double figures for the Cardinals, led by Jordan Jermain's average of 16.5 points that ranks fifth in the GLVC.  Kobe McKinley is seventh with an average of 15.7 per game, while Patterson and Grant Stubbs are scoring 12 per game and Trey Shannon is at 10.3 per contest.  All five aforementioned players have made at least 20 three-pointers apiece, led by Patterson's 32 that includes 23 over Jewell's last four games.  The Cardinals are averaging 10.7 three-pointers per game, the second-best mark in the GLVC.