ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team made a valiant effort but its second half rally came up short in an 82-79 loss to Northwest Missouri State at the D2CCA Tip-off Classic at St. Joseph Civic Arena on Saturday evening. The Tritons are 0-1 while the Bearcats are 1-1.

UMSL got off to a great start hitting seven of its first 10 shots to build an early eight-point lead after a jumper from Jake Hamilton. The Tritons still led 21-15 with 11:03 left in the opening half when NWMSU scored seven straight to take its first lead at 22-21.

Taye Moore hit one of two at the foul line to tie even the score but the Bearcats countered with 12 straight points to take a 34-22 lead after a layup from Matthew Mayes. UMSL got a three from Miles Boland to cut the deficit to single digits but NWMSU finished the half on a 14-8 run to take a 48-33 lead into the locker room at the half.

The Bearcats scored the first five points of the second half to build their largest lead of the night at 53-33.

UMSL chipped away with an 18-8 run to close the gap to 10 but NWMSU pushed it back to 14 at 65-51.

The Tritons wouldn't quit scoring 22 of the next 29 points in the span of five minutes to take a 73-72 lead on layup from Jayden Creighton with 5:14 remaining. UMSL hit four threes in that run.

The Tritons had a chance to extend the lead but a turnover led to a layup for the Bearcats allowing them to retake the lead at 74-73. Northwest pushed its lead back to four but UMSL pulled to within one in the closing seconds. A bucket from Aiden Gair with 0:13 gave the Bearcats a three-point lead.

The Tritons had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds but missed a three and didn't get another chance.

UMSL finished the game shooting 51 percent (31-for-61) from the field including 10-of-22 from three but shot 58 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded the Bearcats 36-to-28 and had 20 assists on 31 field goals made.

Moore finished with a game and career-high 23 points and added seven assists to lead the Tritons. Meechy Phillips added 17 points off the bench, Hamilton and Boland added 13 and 12 points respectively. Phillips also had a game-high eight rebounds.

UMSL plays its final game in the D2CCA Tip-off Classic against Missouri Western at 6 p.m. at the Civic Arena.