ST. LOUIS – Mayson Quartlebaum's old fashioned three-point play with 4.8 seconds left broke a 60-all tie and gave the University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team a 63-60 win over Lewis for its ninth straight win to begin the season on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 9-0, 4-0 GLVC while the Flyers drop to 4-5, 1-4 GLVC.

UMSL is off to its best start in school history.

Lewis led by as many as eight in the opening half as its first six field goals were from three. The Tritons answered with a 9-0 run to take a 20-18 on a pair of free throws from Donovan Vickers with 5:12 left in the half. UMSL extended its lead to 25-22 after two free throws from Victor Nwagbaraocha with 2:25 remaining but the Flyers closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 29-25 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Tritons opened the second half on a 14-5 run to build a 39-34 advantage on a three-pointer from Bowen Sandquist 4:30 minutes into the frame. Lewis countered with a 7-1 run of its own to retake the lead at 41-40 on a jumper by Jamere Hill 2:22 later.

The Flyers still led by one with 11:09 left after another jumper from Hill but UMSL scored seven straight to grab its largest lead of the game at 51-45 on a layup from Isaiah Fuller at the 8:38 mark.

Lewis rallied scoring eight straight to take a 53-51 lead with 6:01 to play after Atakan Sahinkaya tipped in a miss from Beau Frericks. Nwagbaraocha tied the game at 53 going coast-to-coast for a layup after rebounding a Sahinkaya miss with 4:45 to play.

Frericks gave the Flyers their final lead of the game with a three-pointer from the top of the key with 4:30 remaining.

UMSL countered with seven straight getting four points from Matt Enright and three from Sandquist to take a 60-56 with 2:23 left.

Once again, the Flyers answered as Sahinkaya got another tip in to cut the lead to two and then with 0:30 left Vlado Zrnic tipped in a Frericks miss to tie the game at 60.

The Tritons held the ball for nearly the remainder of the game. Fuller drove the left baseline and tried to hit a pull-up jumper in the closing seconds but his shot was off but Quartlebaum was there for the putback, was fouled by Zrnic and hit the free throw to put UMSL in front.

Lewis got the ball in the front court and the Tritons chose to foul Hill with 3.1 left. Hill intentionally missed the front end of the one-and-one and the rebound was tipped out to Anthony Sayles Jr. for a game-tying three-point attempt. His shot at the buzzer was short securing the win for UMSL.

The Tritons shot 44 percent (24-for-54) from the field in the contest in the contest, were 6-of-21 from three and shot 75 percent at the foul line. Nwagbaraocha led UMSL with a season-high 18 points while Sandquist finished with 15.

The Flyers finished the game shooting 48 percent (24-for-50) from the floor including 9-of-21 from three and shot 60 percent at the foul line. Frericks led all scorers with 20 points while Hill added 12.

The Tritons return to the court on Sunday (Dec. 18) as they travel to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic against No. 24 West Texas A&M at South Point Arena at 3:15 p.m. (CST).