ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball is making its fourth appearance in the last six seasons in the NCAA Tournament as it takes on fifth seeded Ferris State in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest Regional on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. at The Recreation and Activities Center (TRAC) in Springfield, Ill.
The Tritons, seeded fourth in the regional, won nine of their last 10 games to earn an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament and will face a familiar foe in the Bulldogs. UMSL and Ferris State have won the past two regional championships and met in the regional semifinal in 2023 at UIndy which the Tritons won on their way to an Elite Eight Appearance.
The Bulldogs are no strangers to the NCAA Tournament having made it in each of the last four years and won the national title in 2018. FSU enters Saturday's contest with a record of 25-8 and lost in the semifinal round of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament to eventual champion and number two seed in this weekend's regional tournament Lake Superior State.
UMSL has won five of its last seven games in the NCAA Tournament and have won two regional championships in program history in 1971-72 and 2022-23.
Matt Enright leads the Tritons in scoring this season with 16.4 points per game and his 90 made three-pointers rank second in a season in school history trailing only Bowen Sandquist's total of 111 which was set two seasons ago. Enright's 184 career three-point makes are third all-time in school history trailing only Barry Graskewic who made 185 three's in his career from 1988-92 and Shane Wissink who sank 197 three's from 2017-22.
Emanuel Prospere II is second on the team at 12.8 points per outing and his 118 assists rank seventh all-time in a single season in school history.
Troy Glover II, the Great Lakes Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year, broke his own single season record for blocked shots with 58 this year and is second all-time in school history with 107 rejections. Glover has recorded double-doubles in eight of his last 11 games.
The Bulldogs are averaging 82.5 points per game this season while shooting 47 percent from the field, 37 percent from three and are averaging 40.1 rebounds per contest. They're led in scoring by Ethan Erickson with 16.2 points per game while Tyler Hamilton is contributing 11.0 points per contest. Nathan Claerbaut is the team's leading rebounder with 6.4 rebounds per outing.
The winner of Saturday's contest will face the winner of the game between eighth seeded Malone and top seeded Missouri S&T on Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. The other two first round matchups on Saturday feature sixth seeded Northern Michigan taking on third seeded Michigan Tech at noon and seventh seeded Lincoln facing second seeded Lake Superior State at 2:30 p.m.
The winner of the Midwest Regional will head to the Elite Eight in Evansville, Ind., beginning on March 25.
