ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team had seven players score including five in double figures in its 81-67 win over Truman State on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons even their overall record at 7-7 and improve to 5-1 in the GLVC while the Bulldogs drop to 4-8, 1-3 GLVC.

Truman scored the first six points of the contest to take the early lead and held UMSL scoreless for nearly the first three minutes. The Tritons got going as Savon Wykle, Terrell Kabala and Matt Enright hit back-to-back-to-back threes to give UMSL its first lead of the contest.

The Tritons stretched their lead to three but the Bulldogs countered with a 6-2 spurt to take its final lead of the game at 15-14 on a jumper from Trey Shearer with 10:19 left in the half. UMSL took control of the game with 15-2 run over the next 5:26 to build a 12-point lead. Wykle had five points in that run while Emanuel Prospere II and Troy Glover II had four points apiece and Enright added two more.

Truman got back-to-back three-pointers from Blaise Porter and Casen Lawrence to cut the Triton lead to six but UMSL finished the half strong scoring 13 of the final 15 points to take a 17-point lead into the locker room at the half.

The Bulldogs opened the second frame on an 11-2 run to pull within eight on a three-pointer by Matt Haefner but the Tritons countered with a 15-7 run to stretch its lead back to 16 on a jumper from Prospere II with 12:16 remaining.

UMSL matched its largest lead of the game on a jumper from Wykle with 6:51 left but Truman kept battling closing to within eight with 1:35 to go after another three from Lawrence.

That would be the closest the Bulldogs got as the Tritons finished the game on an 8-2 run sealing the game on Prospere II's breakaway dunk with 0:24 left.

UMSL finished the game shooting 48 percent (29-for-60) from the field including 8-of-24 from three and 68 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded Truman 39-to-27, turned 12 turnovers into 16 points and outscored the Bulldogs 40-to-22 in the paint.

Prospere II led the way for the Tritons with a game-high 20 points. He was joined in double figures by Glover II with 17 points and 11 rebounds, Wykle chipped in with 15 and Enright and Kabala had 12 points each.

Truman shot 45 percent (25-for-56) from the floor including 12-of-31 from the three-point line and shot 71 percent at the foul line. Landon Eiland led the Bulldogs with 13 points while Haefner and Lawrence had 12 points apiece.

UMSL is back at home next Saturday (Jan. 13) hosting McKendree at 3 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.