ROLLA, Mo. – Road matchups against two of the top three teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference point rating standings awaits Missouri S&T's men's basketball team this week, as the Miners head north for games at Upper Iowa and Truman State in their efforts to break into the top eight in the standings.

The Miners, 12-9 overall and 6-8 in the GLVC, will open the road trip Thursday with their 7:30 p.m. matchup against Upper Iowa in Fayette, Iowa, then head down the road to Kirksville, Mo., to take on a hot Truman State team Saturday at 3 p.m.  Upper Iowa is currently second in the playoff standings and Truman moved up to third after a road win Saturday over league leader Indianapolis.

S&T enters the week in 11^th place in the point rating standings, but closed in on the cutoff line for the GLVC Tournament with its 82-65 win Saturday at Maryville.  The Miners came out blazing, as they made their first six shots from the field and 16 of their first 21 attempts as they built as much as a 21-point lead in the opening half.  S&T would lead by as much as 28 after the intermission before settling for the 17-point victory.


The Miners were paced at Maryville by Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln), who had his second double-double of the season with a game-high 17 points and 11 rebounds, while adding four assists and two steals.  He was among four Miners in double figures as Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) and Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon) had 15 points apiece and Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) finished with 10.

Okeke continues to lead the Miners in scoring with an average of 14.3 points per game, while Williams is averaging 13.5 points and has a team-leading 93 assists.  Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) is scoring 12.1 points per game and has a team-high 37 three-point baskets, while Froebe comes into Thursday's game averaging 11 points per game and leads S&T with 35 steals while shooting 52.7 percent from the field.

Meanwhile, Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) is the Miners' top rebounder with 6.8 per game and is second in the GLVC with 36 blocked shots.

ABOUT UPPER IOWA: The Peacocks, in their first season in the GLVC, held a share of the lead in the GLVC after the first of February, but have lost their last three contests and come into Thursday's game at 14-8 overall and 9-5 in the GLVC.  UIU lost both games of its weekend road trip by double figure margins to Indianapolis and Lewis, but return to a place where it is 7-1 on the season.

Jake Hilmer, a player under consideration for the Trevor Hudgins Award, leads the GLVC in scoring with an average of 23.5 points per game for a team that leads the conference in scoring at 87.3 points per contest.  The Peacocks also have the league's third-leading scorer in Noah King, who is scoring 17.7 points per game and are also getting 13.8 per contest from Nick Reid.  Reid is also the top rebounder for Upper Iowa with his average of 6.3 per game, while Hilmer has dished out 99 assists and made 43 steals on the season.

ABOUT TRUMAN STATE:  The Bulldogs come into the week as perhaps the hottest team in the GLVC as they have won four straight contests and are coming off a road trip sweep over Lewis and Indianapolis.  Truman knocked off Lewis – after trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half -- when Trey Shearer hit a three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining, then hit 12 three-pointers in the first half to build a 20-point advantage and held off the league-leading Greyhounds in the second half for an 85-76 win and improve to 11-11 and 8-6 in the GLVC.

Shearer leads the Bulldogs in scoring with an average of 12.2 points per game, while Kobi Williams is averaging 12 per contest and Xavier Hall, the GLVC assist leader, is scoring 10.4 per contest.  Hall has 115 assists on the year and has added 22 steals, while Landon Eiland is Truman's top rebounder with just under five per game.  The Bulldogs lead the GLVC with 10.8 three-pointers per game and seven different players have made at least 19 -- led by Shearer's 49 – while connecting on 39.8 percent of their tries from long range.