ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Lewis 74-70 in its final home game of the season on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building.
The Tritons finish the regular season with a record of 13-15, 11-9 GLVC and will be the seventh seed in next week's GLVC Tournament at Hyland Arena on the campus of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.
The game was back-and-forth before Lewis (16-12, 12-8 GLVC) used a 13-6 run to grab a five-point lead on a three-pointer from Anthony Sayles Jr., 8:19 into the contest.
That lead grew to as many as seven but UMSL rallied closing the half on a 19-8 run over the final nine-plus minutes including the last 10 points to take a 29-25 lead into the locker room at the break.
Savon Wykle and
Emanuel Prospere II combined for 13 of the 19 points in the run.
The Tritons carried that momentum into the second half as they opened it on a 22-14 surge to grab its largest lead of the game at 51-39 on a three-pointer from
Terrell Kabala with 12:15 remaining.
The Flyers countered with a 14-3 run over the next 4:30 to tie the game on a layup by Cem Kriciman.
UMSL got back-to-back baskets from
Mayson Quartlebaum and
Troy Glover II to regain the lead but Lewis came back once again scoring six of the next seven points to grab a 60-59 lead after a layup from Marieon Anderson with 5:22 left.
The Tritons and Flyers exchanged buckets and Lewis was still ahead by two with 3:09 to go when Quartlebaum hit a three to put UMSL back in front for good.
Matt Enright added two free throws to give the Tritons a three-point cushion.
Lewis pulled to within one on a jumper from Sayles Jr. with 2:14 remaining but Quartelbaum answered on the other end with his second trey of the half to extend the lead to four with less than two minutes to go.
UMSL still led by two with 0:11 left but Lewis had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead but Quartlebaum intercepted Beau Frericks inbounds pass and pushed it ahead to Glover who slammed it home to seal the victory.
The Tritons ended the game shooting 63 percent (29-for-46) from the field including 8-of-14 from three and 73 percent at the charity stripe. Wykle led all scorers with 19 points in the contest and was joined in double figures by Kabala with 15 while Enright and Quartlebaum added 13 and 10 points respectively.
The Flyers shot an equally impressive 59 percent (30-for-51) from the floor but were 4-of-16 from three and shot 75 percent at the foul line. Kirciman led the way for Lewis with 18 points while Frericks and Sayles Jr. had 14 points each. Rob Stroud added 11 points.
UMSL will take on second seeded Upper Iowa in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament on Thursday (March 7) at 8:15 p.m. The Tritons fell to the Peacocks 81-68 back on February 1 in Fayette, Iowa.
