SAN ANTONIO – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team completed its trip to San Antonio with a 67-57 win over Rogers State (Okla.) in the River City Holiday Classic at the Northside ISD Sports Gym on Wednesday afternoon. The Tritons improve to 5-6 while the Hillcats drop to 10-4.

RSU entered the game averaging over 81 points per game but were held in check by UMSL's defense as it held them 24 points below its season average.

The Hillcats took the early lead on a bucket from Caden Frye but that was there only lead of the game as the Tritons got back-to-back baskets from Troy Glover II and KC Udolisa. The two teams traded buckets and were still tied at six when UMSL got back-to-back buckets from Iziah Purvey and two free throws from Matt Enright to grab a six-point lead.

That was just the start of the big day for Purvey as he scored a game and career-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting and wad 3-for-4 at the foul line. He matched his season scoring total of 17 points in the contest and played a career-high 22 minutes.

RSU got a four-point play from Benard Omooria and a layup from Anthony Marshall Jr., to tie the game at 12 halfway through the first half.

Enright put the Tritons back in front for good with back-to-back three's and after a layup by Jaybrin Anderson, Udolisa hit a trey to give UMSL's its largest lead of the half at seven.

The Hillcats closed to within 23-21 thanks to a 7-2 run after a three-pointer from Marshall Jr. but the Tritons closed the half scoring six of the final nine points to take a five-point lead into halftime.

Purvey led UMSL with eight points in the half.

Rogers State cut the Triton lead to three early in the second half but UMSL responded with a 10-0 run to extend its lead to 13 after two free throws from Purvey. The lead grew to as many as 16 with 10:02 remaining after a jumper from Enright.

The Hillcats clawed their way back getting to within 61-57 with 1:27 to go after a jumper from Marshall Jr.

That would be the closest they got though as Enright was fouled with less than a minute to play and hit both free throws to extend the lead to six. After a turnover, Purvey sealed the win with a layup  under 20 seconds remaining and Emanuel Prospere II added two free throws with 6.6 seconds left for the final margin.

The Tritons shot 44 percent (26-for-55) from the floor in the contest including 5-of-18 from three and 71 percent at the charity stripe. They outrebounded RSU 41-to-24 and outscored them 40-to-34 in the paint and 16-to-4 in second chance points.

Purvey was joined in double figures by Enright with 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists while Udolisa finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Glover II and Savon Wykle added nine points each.

The Hillcats shot 41 percent (22-for-54) from the field, were 4-of-17 from three and shot 75 percent at the foul line. Marshall Jr. led RSU with 16 points while Kofi Hamilton added 14 points.

UMSL returns to the court on Friday (Jan. 3) as it travels to Fayette, Iowa to take on Upper Iowa at 7 p.m.