ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team heads to the St. Louis metropolitan area this weekend for a pair of crucial Great Lakes Valley Conference contests, as the Miners will take on Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday night and McKendree Saturday afternoon.

The Miners will face UMSL at 7:30 p.m. Thursday before heading across the river for Saturday's 3 p.m. matchup with McKendree in Lebanon, Ill.  While the Miners are facing the Tritons for the first time this season, it will be their second tilt with the Bearcats, who beat S&T 71-63 earlier this month in Rolla.

Missouri S&T comes into the week at 9-7 overall and 3-6 in the GLVC after dropping matchups last week with Rockhurst and William Jewell.  S&T was unable to slow down Rockhurst in the second half, as the Hawks shot 60 percent over the final 20 minutes in a 91-79 win, then the Miners made two scoring runs to get leads Saturday against William Jewell, only to see the Cardinals make a late surge to pull out the 78-72 victory.

Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville), who had 23 points in the Rockhurst contest, continues to lead the Miners in scoring with an average of 13.9 points per game.  He is among four double figure scorers for the Miners along with Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) at 13.2 points per game, Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) at 12.6 a contest and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) at 10.3 per game.  Smith continues to lead the Miners with 32 three-point baskets.

Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette), who had his second double-double of the season Saturday with 19 points and 12 rebounds, is just short of double figures at 9.6 points per game while leading S&T with seven rebounds per contest.  Meanwhile, Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon) is coming off his best scoring game of the season with 20 points on Saturday and is averaging 7.4 points per game.

Williams and Young also rank among the GLVC leaders in various categories, with Williams sitting second in the league with an average of five assists per game (65 total) and sixth in steals with 21, while Young at third in rebounding and second in blocked shots with 29.

ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS: The Tritons got off to a slow start against a challenging non-conference schedule, then won five of its first six GLVC games before dropping three straight to fall to 5-4 in conference play and 7-10 overall.  UMSL lost a five-point decision last week to league leader Indianapolis before falling by 11 Saturday at Lewis despite having four players in double figures.

One of those four, Matt Enright, leads the Tritons with an average of 12.5 points per game and has team highs of 30 three-point baskets, 61 assists and shares the team lead with 18 steals.  Mayson Quartlebaum is scoring 11.4 points per game on the season, while Emanuel Prospere II is averaging 11.2 points and is shooting 57.7 percent from the field.  Troy Glover, who is hitting 58 percent of his shots, has averages of 9.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and leads UMSL with 26 blocked shots.

ABOUT McKENDREE:  The Bearcats come into a Thursday home game with Maryville at 10-6 overall and 4-5 in the GLVC after dropping both games in their weekend road trip to Lewis and Indianapolis.  McKendree fell 87-76 Saturday at UIndy in a game where the GLVC's second-leading scorer, Milos Vicentic, finished with a game-high 22 points.

Vicentic comes into the week averaging 23.1 points per game and is shooting 54.2 percent from the field, while also leading the Bearcats with 30 three-point baskets.  Caleb Zurliene is averaging 14.9 points a game and has a GLVC-high 48 blocks, while Carson Parker is scoring 11 per game and leading his team on the boards with 6.8 per contest.  Parker also leads the Bearcats with 42 assists.