SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team bounced back with a 62-58 win over Pittsburg State on Tuesday afternoon at the Northside ISD Sports Gym in San Antonio, Texas. The Tritons move to 4-6 while the Gorillas drop to 6-4.
Pittsburg State started out hitting its first four shots to begin the contest to jump out to an early 9-3 lead less than three minutes into the contest.
UMSL countered with a layup from
KC Udolisa and back-to-back threes from
Matt Enright to take its first lead of the game at 11-9 at the 15:01 mark.
R.J. Forney countered with a three on the next possession to put the Gorillas back in front. They would be held scoreless the next 10 minutes as the Tritons went on a 14-0 run during that span to take a 25-12 lead after Enright's third three of the stanza.
Two free throws from Evan Jackson broke the scoreless drought and pulled PSU back to within 11 before UMSL ran off another seven in a row to extend its lead to its largest of the game at 32-14. Udolisa had four points in the run while
Terrell Kabala added three more.
The Gorillas cut into the Triton lead outscoring them 7-0 over the final 2:43 of the half to cut UMSL's lead to 32-21 at the intermission.
The Tritons turned eight PSU turnovers into 16 points in the frame and outscored them 16-0 in points off turnovers.
UMSL scored the first four points of the second half to extend its lead to 15 but the Gorillas fought back to within 41-33 after Tane Prictor hit a layup in the paint with 13:10 left.
The Tritons extended their lead back to double digits on a layup from
Savon Wykle on the next possession only to see Pitt State score the next eight points to close within two on a three-pointer from Forney.
UMSL punched back with a layup from
Emanuel Prospere II and two free three throws from Enright to extend its lead to 47-41.
The Gorillas kept coming though going on an 8-2 run to tie the game at 49 on a layup by Tanner Mans with 3:27 left.
The Tritons regained the lead on two more free throws from Enright but Mans answered with another two free throws to even the score at 51.
Prospere II gave UMSL the lead back on the next possession but a three from the right corner from Forney with 1:50 remaining gave Pitt State its first lead since 12-11.
The Tritons answered on the other end. Wykle missed a go-ahead three but Udolisa got the rebound and got the ball to Prospere II. Prospere II found Udolisa under the basket and he laid it in and was fouled by Forney with 1:18 left. Udolisa completed the three-point play to put UMSL up 56-54.
Prictor missed a dunk on the ensuing possession and Wykle got the board.
Troy Glover II missed a jumper in the paint but stuck with it getting his own rebound and got it to Udolisa who was fouled. Udolisa made both ends of the one-and-one to put the Tritons up four with 0:34 left.
Mans tipped home a missed layup from Avery Taggart to make it a one possession game again.
The Gorillas were forced to foul and sent Udolisa to the line for another one-and-one. Udolisa made both to extend the lead back to four. Prictor slammed home another dunk to make it a one-score game with less than 10 seconds to play.
The Tritons got the ball inbounds to Wykle. He was fouled with 7.2 seconds left and made both free throws to seal the win. Jordan Frison fired up a three in the final seconds but it was off the mark and the ball went out of bounds back to UMSL.
The Tritons finished the game shooting 41 percent (20-for-49) from the field including 7-of-16 from three and 83 percent at the foul line. Enright led all scorers with 21 points while Udolisa finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
Pitt State was held to 37 percent (20-of-54) from the floor, was 6-for-22 from three and was 12-of-12 at the foul line. Frison led the Gorillas with 17 points and Taggart finished with eight points.
UMSL wraps up its trip to San Antonio on Wednesday against Rogers State at 1 p.m. at the Northside ISD Sports Gym. The Hillcats defeated ninth ranked North Georgia 67-52 in the game that preceded the Tritons game.
