ST. LOUIS – The No. 17/19 ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team was upset by Truman State 69-62 on Saturday afternoon at Pershing Arena in Kirksville, Mo. The Tritons fall to 17-4, 9-4 GLVC while the Bulldogs improve to 10-11, 5-8 GLVC.

UMSL entered the game as the top shooting team in the GLVC at 50.8 percent on the season but was held to a season-low 31 percent (18-for-58) effort from the field in the contest. The Tritons were also held to just 6-of-22 shooting from beyond the arc but did shoot 71 percent at the foul line.

UMSL missed its first four shots to begin the game while Truman hit its first two attempts to take the early 4-0 lead. The Tritons got on the board with two Victor Nwagbaraocha free throws sparking a 10-0 run for UMSL. Matt Enright had eight points in that run including a pair of three's to give the Tritons its largest lead of the stanza at 10-4 at the 16:26 mark.

After Enright's second three of the half, the Tritons went cold from the floor missing 13 straight shots. UMSL's only points came at the foul line as the Bulldogs went on a 21-4 run over the next nine minutes to build its largest lead of the game at 25-14 after a layup from Nduka Ogwu with 7:10 left in the half.

Nwagbaraocha snapped the cold spell with a three and then dunked home a miss of a Bowen Sandquist jumper. Those two plays sparked UMSL as it closed the half hitting six of their final 10 shots from the floor and outscored the Bulldogs 14-3 over the final 6:36 of the stanza to head into the locker room tied at 28 at the half.

The two sides went back-and-forth for a majority of the second half as neither side held more than a three-point lead until the final five minutes of the contest. There were nine ties and four lead changes in the second stanza.

Truman led 57-54 with less than seven minutes to play when Sandquist tied the game with a three from the top of the key. The Bulldogs regained the lead two possessions later as Ogwu slammed home a dunk with 5:36 remaining.

Truman's lead grew to four after a pair of free throws from Xavier Hall with 4:53 remaining.

The Tritons cut the deficit in half on their next possession as Nwagbaraocha hit a pair of free throws. UMSL had a chance to take the lead as Nwagbaraocha missed a three but Fuller got the offensive rebound. Fuller missed a layup to tie the game and then in a scramble for the loose ball Nwagbaraocha was called for a push on Trey Shearer and fouled out of the game.

Shearer missed both free throws and Mayson Quartlebaum came away with the rebound. The Tritons again had a chance to retake the lead but Enright missed a three from the right corner baseline and the Bulldogs got the rebound.

Ogwu extended Truman's lead to four with a jumper in the paint with 3:18 left.

UMSL crept closer as Quartlebaum hit 1-of-2 at the charity stripe to make it 63-60 with exactly 3:00 to play. The Tritons had another chance to tie the game but Sandquist missed a three and Dylan Peeters got the rebound.

Sandquist fouled Peeters who hit 1-of-2 at the line to extend the lead back to four at the 1:54 mark.

Drew Cisse brought UMSL back to within two tipping in a miss by Fuller with 1:00 remaining.

The Tritons played good defense as Cisse blocked a layup by Peeters but the loose ball rolled towards the Bulldog bench and CE Talton picked it up and hit a desperation three as the shot clock was set to expire giving Truman a five-point lead with 0:30 to play.

UMSL wouldn't get any closer as Donovan Vickers missed a jumper and then Sandquist stepped out of bounds to give the ball back to Truman.

The Bulldogs sealed the win as Talton scored on a layup with 0:13.

Nwagbaraocha led the Tritons with 17 points in the contest while Enright added 14. Fuller, Sandquist and Vickers had nine points apiece. CIsse finished with 12 rebounds and two blocked shots in the contest.

Truman shot 49 percent (25-for-51) from the field but was just 2-of-15 from three and shot 68 percent at the foul line. Hunter Strait led three Bulldogs in double figures with 16 points. Hall and Bradley Andrews finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.

UMSL returns home next Thursday (Feb. 2) hosting Southwest Baptist at 7:30 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.