ST. LOUIS, MO. – Seniors Tylor Wimbish and Aareon Smith each posted a double-double as the University of Missouri-St. Louis stayed atop the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division standings on Thursday night with an 85-77 win over Truman State.
 
Wimbish tallied a season-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Smith finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth straight double-double and his eighth in the last nine games.
 
The Tritons improve to 12-3 overall, including 4-1 in the GLVC, while Truman State slips to 11-5 and 3-3 in the league. UMSL also improves to 8-0 at home this season.
 
The Tritons shot 52.1 percent from the field, including 63.2 percent in the second half, and owned a 42-31 rebounding advantage, while Truman State shot 36.4 percent.
 
UMSL took its largest lead of the game at 61-44 with 9:40 to play in the game, but saw the lead whittled down to eight points (77-69) with 1:08 remaining. However, the Tritons went 8-of-8 at the free-throw line in the final minute to secure the win despite Truman State pulling within six twice.
 
UMSL took a 34-27 lead into halftime after owning a 21-7 advantage midway through the opening stanza as the Bulldogs netted just two of their first 15 shot attempts. Truman State trimmed the lead down to 31-27 with 28 seconds on the clock before junior Brandon Marquardt's three-pointer closed out the opening 20 minutes of play. The Bulldogs shot just 19.2 percent in that opening frame, but stayed in the game by going 15-of-18 at the free-throw line, while UMSL was just 4-of-5.
 
Truman State finished the game 21-of-28 at the line, while the Tritons were 28-of-34, including 24-of-29 in the second half.
 
UMSL overcame a season-high 16 turnovers in the win, which led to 13 Truman State stelas and a 14-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
Freshman Max Cook came off the bench to tally a career-best nine points, while Marquardt and junior Derek Williams finished with eight points each.
 
UMSL returns to action Saturday at Quincy in a 3 p.m. GLVC contest.