ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team dropped an exhibition contest to Saint Louis 81-58 on Monday evening at Chaifetz Arena.
The Tritons scored the first four points of the contest and led for the first three minutes of the contest. The Billikens, picked to finish second in the Atlantic 10, then went on a 23-4 run over the next seven minutes as UMSL struggled shooting the ball making only two of 12 shots and turned the ball over a couple of times. SLU extended its lead to 26 with two minutes remaining in the half but the Tritons closed the half strong outscoring the Billikens 8-5 over the final 1:49 to cut the lead to 47-24 at the break.
UMSL was held to 26 percent (8-for-31) shooting in the opening half including 2-of-10 from three but did shot 75 percent at the charity stripe.
Bowen Sandquist led the Tritons with five points while
Donovan Vickers and
Isaiah Fuller had four points apiece.
SLU made 19-of-33 shots (57.6) percent, were 7-of-15 from three and 2-for-3 at the foul line. Sincere Parker had 13 points off the bench to lead the Billikens while Gibson Jimerson added 12 points. Yuri Collins had nine points, six assists and four rebounds.
UMSL played even in the second half and made a late run to close the margin to 71-56 after Sandquist went 1-for-2 at the foul line with 2:22 remaining. SLU closed the contest on a 10-2 run for the final margin.
The Tritons shot 41 percent from the floor in the second half to finish the game at 33 percent (19-for-58) from the field including 6-of-20 from three for 30 percent. They also shot 78 percent at the foul line. Fuller led three UMSL players in double figures with 12 points while Sandquist finished with 11 and Vickers had 10 off the bench. Vickers and
Dylan West had five rebounds apiece.
The Billikens finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field including 41 percent from three (11-for-27) and were 6-of-9 at the foul line. Parker and Jimerson were tied for the game-high with 15 points apiece while Collins finished with 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
The Tritons open their season on Friday, Nov. 11, against Walsh at the GLVC/GMAC Crossover at 4:30 p.m. (CST) at Alumni Arena in North Canton, Ohio.
