ST. LOUIS – The fifth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team improved to 12-0 with an 83-61 win over Parkside on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The 12 straight victories are tied with last year's Triton squad for the second longest winning streak in school history.
The Tritons are one shy of equaling the mark for the longest winning streak in school history at 13 which was set by the 1971-72 team and was equaled by the 2019-20 squad.
UMSL opened the game on a 15-3 run and held the Rangers (10-3) to just one field goal over the first 9:30 of the contest.
Victor Nwagbaraocha scored the first six points for the Tritons while
Dylan West and
Isaiah Fuller had six and three points off the bench respectively.
UMSL extended its lead to 21-8 after a layup from
Janeir Harris at the 7:25 mark.
Parkside pulled within 23-15 thanks to a 7-2 run over the span of 1:25 but the Tritons countered with a 9-2 run of its own over the final 3:35 of the half to take a 32-17 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
UMSL pushed its lead to 17 early in the second half but the Rangers got hot over a six-minute stretch going on a 18-9 run to cut the Triton lead to 43-35 with 13:51 remaining. Rasheed Bello scored 10 of his game-high 28 points during that run.
UMSL responded with a 16-6 run of its own to extend its to 59-41 after a three-pointer from Harris with 9:24 left in the contest.
Parkside stayed within striking distance with seven straight points to pull within 11 after two Jamir Simpson free throws but it wouldn't be enough.
The Tritons put the game away with an 18-6 run to build its largest lead of the game at 77-54 after another Harris three. Nwagbaraocha also had five points in the run including a dunk on the break. He took off from just inside the free throw line and threw one down over Jacksun Hamilton with 4:19 to play.
The two sides traded buckets over the final four minutes for the final margin.
UMSL shot 57 percent (35-for-61) from the field in the contest including 5-of-10 from three but shot 62 percent at the foul line. The Tritons won the rebounding battle 40-to-27, outscored the Rangers 60-to-14 in points in the paint and their bench outscored Parkside's by a margin of 50-to-11.
UMSL had five players reach double figures in scoring led by West with 16. Nwagbaraocha added 15 while Harris, Fuller and
Drew Cisse finished with 12 points each. Harris added eight rebounds and
Matt Enright had five assists.
The Rangers finished the game shooting 36 percent (19-for-53) from the floor including 9-of-20 from three but shot 54 percent at the foul line. Bello was joined in double figures in scoring by Simpson with 17 points.
The Tritons resume conference play next Thursday (Jan. 5) as they travel to Kansas City to take on Rockhurst at 7:30 p.m.
