ST. LOUIS -- The University of Missouri-St Louis men's basketball team dropped its season opener to Michigan Tech 72-57 on Friday afternoon in the Just A Game Classic at the Just A Game Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. The Tritons are 0-1 while the Huskies are 1-0.
 
UMSL jumped out to an early five-point lead and led for a majority of the first 20 minutes but a 12-6 run by Michigan Tech over the final 7:45 of the half sent the Huskies into the break with a 30-26 lead.
 
The Tritons shot 42 percent (10-for-24) from the floor in the stanza including 4-of-9 from three and were led by KC Udolisa with 12 points in the frame while Matt Enright and Janeir Harris had five points apiece.
 
UMSL drew to within four early in the second half after a free throw from Harris but wouldn't get any closer as Michigan Tech scored seven straight to build a double-digit lead with 13:50 remaining.
 
The Tritons closed to within eight after two free throws from Emanuel Prospere II with less than 10 minutes to go but that was as close as they got as the Huskies outscored UMSL 24-17 the rest of the way for the 15-point win.
 
The difference in the second half was the Tritons couldn't keep Michigan Tech off the foul line as it outscored UMSL 16-6 from the charity stripe.
 
The Tritons shot 46 percent (12-for-26) from the field in the frame while the Huskies connected on 12 of their 23 attempts (52.2 percent).
 
UMSL finished the game shooting 44 percent (22-for-50) from the floor including 5-of-16 from three but shot only 53 percent at the foul line. Udolisa led the Tritons with 17 points in the contest while Enright added 11 points. Troy Glover II led UMSL with eight rebounds.
 
Michigan Tech was 23-for-52 (44.2 percent) from the field, 5-of-21 from three but shot 88 percent (21-for-24) at the foul line. Pete Calcaterra led all scorers with 23 points in the contest and was joined in double figures by Marcus Tomashek with 13 points while Dawson Nordgaard and Ty Fernholz had 12 and 11 points respectively.
 
The Tritons wrap up their trip to Wisconsin on Saturday against Northern Michigan at 7 p.m. at the Just A Game Fieldhouse.