ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team held off a late run from Southwest Baptist to pick up a 71-65 win on Monday evening on Chuck Smith Court at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons even their overall record at 7-7 and improve to 5-2 in the GLVC while the Bearcats drop to 6-7, 3-4 GLVC.

The two sides traded runs in the opening half with UMSL jumping out to an early five-point lead only to see SBU rally to take a 15-12 lead on a three-pointer from Brandon Moore with 11:54 remaining in the opening half.

The Tritons dominated the next six-plus minutes using an 18-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 30-17 after back-to-back layups from Emanuel Prospere II. KC Udolisa led the charge with eight points in the run while Matt Enright had six and Prospere added four more.

The Bearcats fought back closing the half on a 17-4 run to tie the game at the break on a three-pointer from Luke Ogle. David Hector scored nine of those points for SBU.

The two sides continued to go back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the second half with the Bearcats leading 50-47 after two free throws from Branden Eckles but would go cold over the next five minutes allowing UMSL to take advantage.

Savon Wykle hit a three-pointer to jump start the game altering 12-0 run while Troy Glover II chipped in with four and Udolisa added three.

SBU kept battling drawing to within three in the final 0:30 but a dunk from Glover and free throws from Udolisa and Enright helped the Tritons keep the Bearcats at bay as they held on for the victory.

UMSL 57 percent (28-for-49) from the floor in the contest including 68 percent in the second, was 7-of-13 from three and shot 67 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded SBU 30-to-27 and outscored them in the paint 42-to-22.

Enright led four Tritons in double figures with 17 points while Udolisa added 16 points, seven assists and four rebounds. Glover finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots while Wykle scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half.

SBU shot 40 percent (21-for-52) from the field in the contest including 10-of-26 from three and shot 81 percent at the foul line. Drenin Dinkins led all scorers with 21 points in the contest. He was joined in double figures by Barron Silsby with 15 and Hector and Jevin Sullivan had 11 and 10 points respectively.

UMSL begins a four-game road trip this Thursday (Jan. 16) as it travels to Jefferson City to take on GLVC newcomer Lincoln at 7:30 p.m. at Jason Gymnasium.