Box Score ST. LOUIS, MO. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team used a stretch of 14 unanswered points early in the second half to pull away from Culver-Stockton en route to a 92-77 victory on Wednesday afternoon in the final non-conference test for the Tritons.
UMSL improves to 7-2 with the win, while Culver-Stockton sees a seven-game win streak snapped with the loss, while slipping to 11-3 overall. The win was also career victory number 450 for Tritons head coach
Steve Tappmeyer, with 42 of those wins coming in three seasons on the UMSL sidelines.
The Tritons clung to a 39-38 halftime lead and saw the Wildcats take their first lead of the game with the opening bucket of the second half. After Jermaine Jones put Culver-Stockton ahead 50-48 with 17:12 to play, UMSL reeled off 14 straight points, taking a 62-50 lead at the 12:45 mark on a jumper in the paint by senior
Justin Jones. Jones scored six points during that stretch.
Senior
Joshua McCoy and junior
Darian Cartharn each scored 22 points to lead the offense, while senior
Isiah Nunn and sophomore
Aareon Smith followed with 13 and 10 points each, respectively.
UMSL finished the game shooting 43.7 percent, including 52.8 percent in the second half, while Culver-Stockton shot 45.5 percent and owned a 43-35 rebounding edge. Smith and Nunn each pulled down eight boards.
UMSL equaled its largest lead of the first half at 38-31 with 4:01 to play on a three-pointer by
Neil Branham, but from there UMSL had three turnovers and went 0-for-3 from the field. Culver-Stockton took advantage, knotting the game at 38-38 with 47 seconds remaining before McCoy hit the first of two free throws for the halftime score.
UMSL is idle until January 3 when it returns to Great Lakes Valley Conference action with a game at Southern Indiana.
TRITON TIDBITS: UMSL improves to 5-0 all-time against the Wildcats… the win was the 13
th straight non-conference home victory, dating back to 2010-11… UMSL concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 7-1 record… senior
Charlie Woods went 2-for-2 at the free throw line, extending his streak to 30 consecutive makes at the charity stripe dating back to November 24… UMSL hit the 90-point plateau for the fourth time this season.
