ROLLA, Mo. – With the beginning of the Great Lakes Valley Conference season right around the corner, Missouri S&T will have its final game leading up to the Monday GLVC opener on Wednesday afternoon as it hosts Ecclesia in a matinee contest at Gibson Arena.  Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m., following the S&T women's game that will precede that game.

The Miners, ranked eighth in the National Association of Basketball Coaches' pre-season poll – the new rankings will be released Tuesday – enter the game with a 2-0 record on the season with a road victory over Kentucky Wesleyan and an 89-43 win in their home opener on Saturday over Harris-Stowe.

Alex Benassi (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) scored a career-high 24 points in the win over the Hornets, making nine of his 10 shots from the field in the process and comes into Wednesday's game as one of three double figure scorers for the Miners on the season with a team-leading 17.5 points per game.  Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) – who scored the 1,000^th point of his S&T career on Saturday – is averaging 13.5 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds per contest and Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon) checks in with marks of 12 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

The Miners are outrebounding their opponents by 10 boards per game and have forced 37 turnovers in the first two games of the season.  S&T has also held its first two foes to 31.1 percent shooting from the floor and a nine-of-38 mark (23.7 percent) from beyond the arc.  The Miners also made 21 steals in Saturday's win, four apiece by Young, Darron Henry (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Poly) and Adam Rickman (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia), as they recorded at least 20 steals in a game for the first time since Dec. 1, 2014.

ABOUT ECCLESIA: The Royals are still seeking their first win in the 2025-26 campaign, as they took an 0-8 mark into a game Monday night at Northeastern State.  The Springdale, Ark.-based school, a member of the National Christian College Association of America, will be playing its fifth straight game against an NCAA Division II school when it faces the Miners on Wednesday.

The Royals lost an 11-point decision last Monday at Southwest Baptist, but were beaten decisively in games against Drury and Ouachita Baptist later in the week.  The loss at SBU was its closest margin of the season thus far.

Christian Ford leads the team in scoring with an average of 14.1 points per game, including a 20-point outing in the loss to Southwest Baptist, while Nate Hauglie is also in double figures with a mark of 10.7 points per game.