ST. LOUIS, MO. – Double-doubles from seniors Aareon Smith and Tylor Wimbish helped the University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team to an 80-68 victory over William Jewell on Sunday afternoon in one of four Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament First Round games around the league.
 
Smith recorded 26 points and 13 rebounds, while Wimbish tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds as the Tritons advance to the GLVC Tournament Quarterfinals where they will face No. 2 seed and West Division champion Drury on Thursday at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., at a time to be announced.
 
Junior Brandon Marquardt also reached double figures with 16 points, knocking down four three-pointers.
 
UMSL improves to 19-10 overall, while William Jewell ends its season at 13-14.
 
The Tritons shot 50 percent in the victory, including 53.8 percent in the second half, in which they outscored William Jewell, 40-27.
 
The Cardinals took a 41-40 lead into halftime behind 51.9 percent shooting, including 80 percent (8-of-10) from three-point range. William Jewell went 0-of-9 from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes, however, and finished the game shooting 43.9 percent.
 
UMSL scored the first five points of the second half and took a 62-48 lead on Smith's jumper in the paint with 11:51 to play before William Jewell used a 16-5 run over the next eight minutes, pulling within 67-64 at the 3:39 mark. Smith then scored UMSL's next seven points and put his team ahead 74-66 with 1:31 to play and later sealed the game with four free throws in the final 35 seconds.  
 
The Tritons held a 37-30 rebounding advantage, including an 11-10 edge on the offensive end and owned an 18-13 advantage in second chance points.
 
Freshman Max Cook dished out a career-high nine assists to help UMSL to 20 assists on 29 field goals.
 
TRITON TIDBITS: UMSL improves to 3-9 all-time in GLVC Tournament games and wins its second straight first round game at home… the Tritons improve to 11-6 all-time against William Jewell and avenged the regular season meeting loss in Liberty, Mo. (69-60)… UMSL finished the 2014-15 campaign with an 11-4 home record… senior Aareon Smith tallied his fourth straight 20-plus scoring game and his 15^th double-double of the year… UMSL netted 11 three-point field goals, its 11^th double-digit effort this season, which ties the 2012-13 team for the most in program history… UMSL has 19 wins for the first time since 2011-12 (19-9) and just the second time since the 1990-91 team went 22-6.