ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team upset fourth ranked Indianapolis 64-57 to snap its four-game losing streak and also snapped the Greyhounds 18-game winning streak on Thursday evening at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 19-8, 11-8 GLVC while UIndy drops to 24-3, 16-3 GLVC.
With the win, UMSL moves from a tie for sixth to third in the latest edition of the GLVC's Point Rating System which determines the final eight teams in the GLVC Tournament next weekend at Lindenwood's Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Mo. The Tritons have a PRS of 3.47 and sit 0.02 points ahead of Illinois Springfield for third place and trail William Jewell by 0.11 points.
Both teams started the game cold from the floor as it was tied at six less than six minutes into the contest.
The Hounds got hot over the next five minutes as Bruno Williams scored nine of their next 12 points while Josiah Hynes added a three to give UIndy its largest lead of the night at 18-6 with 9:19 left in the opening half.
UMSL responded over the next 5:30 minutes with a 17-4 run to take its first lead of the game on a
Drew Cisse dunk from
Isaiah Fuller.
Victor Nwagbaraocha and
Bowen Sandquist ignited the run hitting back-to-back three's in the span of 0:49 seconds.
The Hounds regained the lead briefly on a three-pointer from Sean Craig but it would be their final lead of the night as the Tritons closed the half on a 10-2 run to take a 33-27 lead into halftime.
The Tritons extended their lead to nine within the first five minutes of the second half but UIndy battled back to within 48-46 after a jumper by Tynes with 7:43 to play. UMSL had an answer on the other end as
Matt Enright and
Trever Moore hit back-to-back three's to push the lead back to eight with 6:39 remaining.
The Hounds wouldn't get closer than five points the rest of the contest as
Mayson Quartlebaum sealed the victory with a layup with an assist from Fuller with 0:38 left.
The Tritons shot 48 percent in the second half from the field and finished the game shooting nearly 45 percent (25-for-56) from the field including 10-of-21 from three and shot 80 percent at the foul line. Nwagbarocha had a game-high 18 points and was joined in double figures by Sandquist with 10. Cisse and Sandquist had eight rebounds apiece.
The 57 points for UIndy matched its lowest point total of the season as it was held to 41 percent shooting (21-for-51) from the floor including 7-of-17 from three but shot only 53 percent at the foul line. Kendrick Tchoua led the Greyhounds with 16 points. He was joined in double figures by Williams and Tynes with 11 points apiece while Jesse Bingham added 10 points.
UMSL concludes the regular season on Saturday afternoon as it hosts McKendree at 3 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons will honor their four seniors: Fuller, Moore, Nwagbaraocha and Sandquist prior to the start of the game.
