ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's basketball team begins defense of its Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season title Monday evening, when it begins a three-game stretch on the road to begin conference play with a matchup against last year's tournament champion, Lincoln University.

Monday's game will get underway at 7:30 p.m. in Jefferson City, Mo., a highly-anticipated matchup between not only the regular season and tournament champions from last season, but also the teams picked first and second in the GLVC's pre-season poll.  The upcoming schedule for the Miners will also include a road trip later in the week that will take them to Quincy and Upper Iowa.

The Miners, ranked sixth in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches' poll, improved to 3-0 on the season as they fended off a pesky Ecclesia squad 75-61 on Wednesday at Gibson Arena.  S&T led by one at the half, then outscored the Royals 42-29 over the final 20 minutes thanks in large part to a double-double recorded by Cameron Stovall (St. Louis, MO/Vashon).

The junior forward finished the afternoon with a season-high 21 points and 13 rebounds – recording his second career double-double in the process – and is among three Miners averaging in double figures in the scoring column heading into Monday's game.  Stovall is scoring 15 points per game while shooting 57.6 percent from the floor, trailing only Alex Benassi's (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) mark of 16.7 points per contest.

Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) is the third player in double figures with marks of 13.5 points and a team-leading 8.7 rebounds per game through play on Wednesday. 

As a team, the Miners are holding their opponents to 33.9 percent shooting from the field and have outrebounded all three of their foes thus far, as they have pulled down 8.7 more rebounds than their opponents.  S&T has also made 36 steals in its first three games and ranks second in the GLVC in that category.

ABOUT LINCOLN: The Blue Tigers opened their GLVC slate Saturday with a 77-68 win over Southwest Baptist in Jefferson City, as they were paced by four players in double figures as part of a 51.9 percent shooting effort in the victory.  Lincoln, who went to 4-1 with the win, never trailed in the contest and broke away in the second half after SBU got to within three with under 12 minutes to play.

Solomon Oraegbu, a transfer from Prairie View A&M, leads Lincoln in scoring with an average of 17.8 points per game despite starting just once – on Saturday -- in the first five games for the Blue Tigers.  Tyler Chapman is averaging 14 points per game and has a team-leading 17 three-point baskets and has connected on 44.7 percent of his three-point tries this season, while Enari Thomas is scoring 10.8 per game after joining the Lincoln program following a stint at Roosevelt University.

Two other returning players for Lincoln, Malcolm Davis and Max Ekono, are averaging 9.8 and 8.4 points per game, respectively on the year, with Ekono heading the Blue Tigers in rebounding with 6.6 per game and Davis recording a team-leading nine steals.