ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Upper Iowa 70-67 in a matchup of two of the top teams in the GLVC on Chuck Smith Court at the Mark Twain Building on Saturday afternoon. The Tritons won their season-high fourth straight game to improve to 14-10, 12-5 GLVC while the Peacocks fall to 17-8, 11-6 GLVC.
The team honored its four seniors:
Janeir Harris, Brennan Weller, Emanuel Prospere II and
Savon Wykle prior to the start of the game.
UMSL jumped out to an early four-point lead but Upper Iowa countered with a 13-4 run over a span of 4:30 to take its largest lead of the game at 17-12 on a layup from Jack Miller.
The Tritons still trailed by four with 7:45 left in the half before going on a 16-7 run over the next six-plus minutes to grab their largest lead of the half at 33-28 on a jumper from
Matt Enright.
The Peacocks got a three-point play from Nick Reid to cut UMSL's lead to two but a jumper from Harris extended the lead back to four.
Upper Iowa scored the final points of the half on a layup from Reid with 0:32 left in the stanza to send the teams to the locker room with UMSL in front 35-33.
The Tritons opened the second half on a 12-5 run to extend its halftime lead to nine on a jumper from Wykle more than five minutes into the half. That lead grew to as many as 12 after a three from Enright at the 10:44 mark.
The Peacocks kept battling but UMSL still led by 11 with 4:31 to play. Upper Iowa cut into the lead scoring seven quick points in the span of 1:20 to pull within 63-59.
Troy Glover II extended the lead to six with a dunk but five straight free throws from Reid made it a one-point contest with less than 90 seconds remaining.
Glover hit both ends of a one-and-one with 0:47 left and then after a missed three from Reid, Wykle was fouled and hit one of two free throws to extend the lead to four with 0:32 left.
Reid hit a quick three from the left corner to make it a one-point game with 24.4 to go. A turnover in the front court gave the Peacocks a chance to take the lead but Reid was called for an offensive foul as Enright stepped in front to draw the charge with 0:10 left.
Upper Iowa was forced to foul and sent Wykle back to the line and he hit both foul shots to make it a three-point game.
The Peacocks had one last chance to force overtime but Reid's shot was off the mark and Harris got the rebound to end the game.
UMSL shot 46 percent (29-for-63) from the floor for the contest including 5-of-15 from three and 70 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded UIU 44-to-20 and outscored them 14-to-4 in second chance points. Enright led five Tritons in double figures with 18 points while Glover added 16 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Wykle, Harris and Prospere finished with 12 points apiece.
The Peacocks shot 40 percent (24-for-60) from the field in the contest, were 7-of-25 from three and shot 80 percent at the foul line. Reid led all scorers with 23 points in the contest and was joined in double figures by Noah King with 12 points.
The Tritons begin their final road swing of the regular season next Thursday traveling to Liberty, Mo., to take on William Jewell at 7:30 p.m. from the Mabee Center.
