ST. LOUIS – The No. 18 University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team rallied from an eight-point second half deficit to defeat Missouri S&T 76-67 on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 8-0, 3-0 GLVC while the Miners drop to 5-2, 1-2 GLVC.

The 8-0 start for UMSL is its best to open the season since 2014-15 when the Tritons began that season winning eight in a row.

It was a game of runs as S&T jumped out to an early four-point lead then UMSL countered with a 13-6 run of its own to take a 25-22 lead after a three from Bowen Sandquist with 5:11 left in the half.

The Tritons still led by three after a dunk from Janeir Harris but that would be their final lead of the half as the Miners ran off 11 straight to take its largest lead of the half at 36-28 on a three from Ikenna Okeke with less than a minute to play in the stanza.

Sandquist hit his second three of the frame to bring UMSL within five but Dylan Singleton hit 1-of-2 free throws in the closing seconds to give S&T a 37-31 lead at the break.

The Tritons scored the first six points of the second half to tie the game at 37 but the Miners countered with an 11-3 run highlighted by three three-pointers to match its largest lead of the game at 48-40 with 14:24 to play.

UMSL responded with an 18-6 run over the next 4:24 to retake the lead at 58-54 on a pair of Victor Nwagbaraocha free throws. It was a lead the Tritons wouldn't relinquish. S&T cut the margin to two but wouldn't get any closer as UMSL pulled away with an 18-9 run to take its largest lead of the contest at 76-65 on two Sandquist free throws with 0:37 left.

The Tritons shot 51 percent (26-for-51) from the field in the contest but were 6-of-18 from three. UMSL missed five of its first eight throws but hit 15 straight to finish the game shooting 78 percent at the charity stripe.

The Tritons had five players reach double figures in scoring in the contest led by Mayson Quartlebaum with 16 while Harris added 15 off the bench. Isaiah Fuller had 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Sandquist and Nwagbaraocha finished with 10 points each.

The Miners shot 41 percent (23-for-56) in the contest including 7-of-18 from three and shot 88 percent at the foul line. Julien Smith led three S&T players in scoring with a game-high 20 points. Okeke added 17 points and nine rebounds while Lovell Williams added 14 points.

UMSL concludes its three-game homestand next Saturday hosting Lewis at 3 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.