ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team used a strong second half performance to pick up a 70-62 win at Maryville on Wednesday afternoon at Moloney Arena. The win also snapped the Tritons two-game losing streak.
UMSL improves to 6-7, 4-1 GLVC while the Saints drop to 4-6, 0-4 GLVC.
The Tritons trailed the entire first half and were down by as many as nine with 2:43 left in the stanza but closed the half on a 6-0 run to cut Maryville's lead to three at halftime.
UMSL opened the second half on a 7-2 run to take its first lead of the game on a layup from
Troy Glover II less than three minutes into the frame.
The lead was short lived as Maryville countered with a 10-5 run to regain the lead. Davis Walker gave the Saints their final lead of the contest on a layup at the 13:36 mark.
The Tritons took control over the next 9:30 outscoring Maryville 20-5 to build a 62-50 lead on a layup from Glover II with 4:09 remaining.
Matt Enright had nine points in the game deciding run while
Savon Wykle, Emanuel Prospere II and
Kris O'Neal II had three points each.
The Saints cut the margin under 10 on a three-pointer from Ari Jackson with 3:26 to go but UMSL built their lead to as many as 13 after two free throws from
Mayson Quartlebaum and layup from Glover II to seal the victory.
After allowing Maryville to shoot 46 percent in the first half the Tritons defense tightened up in the second allowing the Saints to shoot 33 percent including 4-of-11 from the three-point line.
UMSL shot exactly 50 percent (26-for-52) from the field in the contest including 7-of-15 from three and 65 percent at the charity stripe. Enright led three UMSL players in double figures with a game-high 19 points, 11 in the second half, while Quartlebaum added 16 and Wykle finished with 11. Enright also added seven rebounds and five assists.
Maryville was led in scoring by Jackson with 17 points while Dewayne Vass added 15 points and Walker finished with 10 points off the bench.
The Tritons are back at home this Saturday (Jan. 6) as it hosts Truman State at 3 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.