ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball welcomes No. 12 Missouri S&T and Lincoln to Chuck Smith Court at the Mark Twain Building this weekend. The Tritons and Miners meet on Thursday evening at 7:45 p.m. and then UMSL will face the Blue Tigers at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
The Tritons (10-7, 4-4 GLVC) snapped their two-game skid with an impressive 78-46 at Southwest Baptist last Saturday. UMSL matched their season-high with 16 threes against the Bearcats and had four players in double figures in scoring led by
Colby Dolphin with 21 points on seven threes.
Vincent Davis III added 14 points while
Makeer Makeer and
Taye Moore had 13 points each.
Davis and
Miles Boland rank among the GLVC leaders heading into this week's games. Davis leads the league in field goal percentage at 60.7 percent while Boland has a league best 86 assists and is second in the conference with 5.1 assists per game. Boland is also second in the league with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.9.
Defensively, UMSL ranks second in the conference allowing just 65.8 points per game and are sixth in opponent field goal percentage at 42.8 percent.
About Missouri S&T – The Miners enter Thursday night's contest with a record of 11-2 and are 5-1 in the GLVC after rallying for a win at Drury last Thursday. S&T moved up four spots in this week's National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Top 25 rankings.
The Miners continue be one of the top offensive teams in the GLVC this season ranking third in points per game against conference opponents but have struggled to slow GLVC offenses allowing the 12
th-most post points per game through their first six conference games.
After back-to-back games scoring over 20 points, Blaise Beauchamp has become one of the top scorers in the GLVC, ranking sixth with 18.7 points per contest. Zac Bron is shooting 61.5 percent (24-for-39) from the field in league play which is tied for the highest shooting percentage in GLVC contests. Andrew Young and Adam Rickman are two of the biggest defensive threats in the conference with Young ranking second in blocked shots and Rickman third in steals.
Thursday's contest marks the 77th meeting all-time between UMSL and S&T with the Tritons holding a 47-29 advantage in the series. UMSL has won nine of the last 11 meetings in the series. The two sides met twice last season with the Miners winning the regular season meeting 88-84 in Rolla while the Tritons won the rematch 65-56 in the NCAA Midwest Region semifinal in Springfield, Ill.
About Lincoln – The Blue Tigers have a bye on Thursday and will enter Saturday's contest with a record of 7-9, 1-7 GLVC and have lost five straight. Lincoln dropped a 70-62 overtime contest at Southwest Baptist last Thursday and then fell at Drury 85-79 on Saturday afternoon in Springfield, Mo.
Solomon Oraegbu leads the Blue Tigers in scoring this season and is third in the GLVC at 20.6 points per contest while Max Ekono leads the team and is fifth in the conference in rebounding with 8.2 boards per game.
Lincoln leads the GLVC in free throw shooting making 78.4 percent of its attempts and has three players ranked in the top 10 in that category. Malcolm Davis is third at 88.9 percent while Oraegbu and Ekono are tied for eighth at 84.8 percent.
Saturday's contest marks the 42nd meeting all-time between the Tritons and Blue Tigers with UMSL leading the series 29-12. The two teams met twice last season with the Tritons winning the regular season matchup 69-51 in Jefferson City but Lincoln won the rematch 58-51 to win the GLVC title at Lindenwood.
