ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team is in the middle of a mad scramble to reach the Great Lakes Valley Conference and can take a step in the direction of making the field Saturday when it takes on Maryville in a 3 p.m. contest in St. Louis.

The Miners, 11-9 overall and 5-8 in the GLVC, enter the week just two and one-half games in back of fourth place Lewis in the standings – after knocking off the Flyers 73-69 on Saturday at Gibson Arena – but are 12^th in the Point Rating Standings employed by the conference to determine its eight playoff participants.  S&T has five of its last seven games away from home, but that could also be beneficial to its playoff hopes as road wins carry more weight in the rankings.

After coming up in short in overtime to league leader Indianapolis last week, the Miners never trailed in the victory over Lewis but did have to make a second half run to get control of the contest in the latter stages.  The Miners led by as much as 14 before the Flyers rallied and drew even, but an 8-1 burst gave S&T the lead for good as it picked up the critical victory.

Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) led the Miners with 24 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots in the win and comes into Saturday's game as one of four double figure scorers on the season for S&T.  Williams is averaging 13.4 points per game, second to Ikenna Okeke's (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) 14.5 per game, while also leading the Miners with 86 assists.  He is second in the GLVC in assists with 5.1 assists per game.

Besides Okeke, who is second to Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) in rebounding with six per game to Young's seven, S&T also has Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) averaging 12.7 points per game and Kaden Froebe (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) at 10.7 per game entering Saturday's game.  Smith leads the Miners with 37 three-point baskets while Froebe, who is shooting 53.2 percent from the field and reached the 1,000-point mark for his career last week, has a team-high 33 steals that ranks sixth in the conference.

Young, who is just short of the double figure mark in the scoring column, is sixth in the GLVC in rebounding and also ranks second with 35 blocked shots.

ABOUT MARYVILLE: The Saints had their six-game winning streak snapped Saturday when the top team in the GLVC, Indianapolis, handed Maryville a 64-51 loss in St. Louis.  Maryville had a six-point lead at halftime, but was outscored 37-18 in the second half as it shot just 28.6 percent over the final 20 minutes.  Dewayne Vass and Trey Redd were the only Saints in double figures with 10 points apiece.

Luke Williams leads the Saints in the scoring column with an average of 11.4 points per game, while Vass is averaging 10.9 per contest.  Maryville is also getting 8.9 points a game from Ari Jackson, who has connected 43 times from three-point range and has made long-range shots at a clip of nearly 40 percent.  Williams has also made 31 threes and is hitting 36.5 percent of his attempts.  Tutu Chisholm is Maryville's top rebounder with 6.4 per game, while Vass leads the way with 89 assists and 36 steals.

Missouri S&T defeated Maryville 95-81 in Rolla when the teams met on Dec. 9.