SAN ANTONIO – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team dropped a hard fought contest to Dallas Baptist 81-77 in the River City Classic at the Northside ISD Sports Gym on Wednesday afternoon in San Antonio. The Tritons drop to 8-5 while the Patriots improve to 9-4.

UMSL gave up the first basket of the game before going on a 7-0 run to take a lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the half.

The lead grew to as many as 15 after a layup from Jayden Creighton near the midway point of the half.

DBU got as close as seven late in the stanza but a three from Jake Hamilton gave the Tritons a double digit lead with 0:40 left in the half. The Patriots got a layup from Trevor Frank in the closing seconds to cut UMSL's lead to 41-33 at the break.

Hamilton led all scorers with 15 points in the knocking down five of his seven three point attempts while Quenton Parker added six more.

Taye Moore opened the scoring in the second half with a three to extend UMSL's lead back to double digits but DBU chipped away with a 12-4 run to pull within 48-45 more than four minutes in.

The Tritons led by six with 14:24 remaining when the Patriots went on a 13-1 run to build a 62-56 lead after back-to-back threes from Drew Calderon and Cody Stevens.

After UMSL cut the margin to four, TJ Thomas hit a step-back three to give DBU its largest lead of the contest.

The Tritons rallied to tie it on a three from Colby Dolphin with 4:21 to go but a 4-1 spurt by the Patriots gave them a 75-72 advantage with 2:32 left.

Hamilton's sixth three of the contest, first of the second half, tied the game at 75 on the ensuing possession but DBU retook the lead on a layup from Xavion Brown with 1:31 remaining.

Moore missed a pull-up three with 1:00 to go and Brown scored on the other to make it a four-point margin with 0:37 left. UMSL cut the deficit to two on a layup from Vincent Davis III but it wouldn't be enough as Cody Stevens hit two free throws with 0:10 left to seal the win.

The Tritons finished the game shooting 40 percent (23-for-57) from the field including 13-of-29 from three and shot 82 percent at the foul line. Hamilton led all scorers with an UMSL career-high of 22 points. He was joined in double figures by Moore with 14.

The Patriots ended the game shooting 55 percent (28-for-51) from the floor including 60 percent in the second half, were 8-of-18 from three and shot 63 percent at the foul line. Brown led DBU with 13 points. He was joined in double figures by AJ Borden and Justin Haire with 11 points each and Jaden Shelvin finished with 10 points.

The Tritons resume their schedule on Friday (Jan. 2) hosting Quincy at 7:45 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.