INDIANAPOLIS – The second seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Ferris State 82-68 in the Midwest Region semifinal contest on Sunday evening at Nicoson Hall in Indianapolis, Ind. With the win the Tritons (23-10) advance to their second consecutive Midwest Region Final.

UMSL raced out to an early nine point as it held the Bulldogs (24-9), seeded sixth, without a field goal for the first seven minutes of the contest.

Ferris State went on a 12-2 run in the span of two minutes to take its first lead at 15-14 on a jumper by Amari Lee.

The Tritons countered with an 11-4 run of its own over the next three minutes to retake the lead at 25-19. Trever Moore scored eight straight points in that run.

The Bulldogs answered again with an 20-6 run over a 7:15 minute stretch to take its largest lead of the contest at 39-31 on a layup by Vejas Grazulis.

UMSL finished the half strong getting back-to-back three-pointers from Donovan Vickers to cut Ferris' lead to two at the break.

The two sides went back-and-forth over the first seven-plus minutes of the second half and were tied at 50 after a three-pointer from Lee at the 12:52 mark.

The Tritons scored the next eight points behind five from Victor Nwagbaraocha and three more from Bowen Sandquist to snag an eight-point lead at the midway point of the stanza.

That was part of a 12-3 run that saw UMSL match its largest lead of the contest.

The Bulldogs cut it to four on a layup by Reece Hazelton and a three from Jimmy Scholler with 7:41 left.

UMSL still led by six with six minutes to go when the Tritons finished the game on a 16-8 run to take its largest lead of the contest at 14 points to pull away for the victory.

UMSL shot 57 percent (16-for-28) from the field in the second half including 4-of-8 from three and shot 90 percent at the foul line while holding Ferris State to just 31 percent (9-for-29) shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Vickers finished with a game-high 20 points and was joined in double figures by Sandquist and Nwagbaraocha with 18 and 12 points respectively.

Lee led three Bulldogs in double figures with 15 points off the bench. Solomon Oraegbu added 13 points while Grazulis had 12 points, all in the first half.

The Tritons will take on McKendree in the Midwest Regional Final this Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CDT) at Nicoson Hall on the University of Indianapolis Campus in Indianapolis.