ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball dropped its season opener to Cedarville 75-70 on Saturday afternoon in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic at Jenkins Fieldhouse in Lakeland, Fla.
The Tritons (0-1) jumped out to an early seven-point lead but were unable to contain the Yellow Jackets three-point shooting as they connected on 41 percent of its attempts (7-of-17) in the first 20 minutes and used a late run to take a 40-27 lead into the locker room at the break.
UMSL scored the first five points of the second half to cut the deficit to eight after a layup from
Emanuel Prospere II. Cedarville (1-0) countered with a 14-8 run over the next 5:30 minutes to build its largest lead of the contest at 54-40 on fast break layup from Jayvon Maughmer.
The Tritons kept fighting getting as close as four at 56-52 after a three-pointer from
Terrell Kabala with 6:14 remaining but was unable to get any closer as the Yellow Jackets answered with an 11-2 run to stretch its lead back to 13.
UMSL made one final run to get within five on a jumper by
Matt Enright with 0:06 left.
The Tritons shot 56 percent (19-for-34) from the floor in the second half to finish the game at 49 percent from the field but were just 4-of-16 from three and shot 63 percent at the charity stripe. Enright led three UMSL players in double figures with 22 points.
Janeir Harris and
Mayson Quartlebaum had 14 and 13 points respectively.
Troy Glover II had six rebounds while Prospere II had four assists.
Cedarville finished the game shooting 47 percent from the field but was 11-for-30 from three and perfect at the foul line. Maughmer finished with a game-high 31 points and was joined in double figures by Chris Rogers and Grant Whisman with 14 and 11 points respectively. Jacob Drees had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Tritons are back in action on Sunday taking on No. 16 Bentley in their final game in the SCB Hall of Fame Classic. The Falcons defeated No. 18 Colorado School of Mines 69-51 in the first game of the day on Saturday.
