ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball travels to Upper Iowa and Quincy for a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests this weekend. The Tritons and Peacocks meet on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Fayette, Iowa and then UMSL concludes its road trip on Saturday against the Hawks at 3 p.m. in Quincy, Ill.
The Tritons moved back above .500 in GLVC plays with wins over UIndy and Lewis last weekend at the Mark Twain Building. With the wins, UMSL vaulted Truman State into eighth place in the GLVC's Point Ratings System (PRS) which determines the eight teams that qualify for the GLVC Tournament which will be held March 5-8 at the Mark Twain Building on the UMSL campus.
Jake Hamilton averaged 15 points per game in the two contests last weekend while
Demetris Phillips chipped in with 12.5 points per outing and pulled down seven rebounds per contest.
Taye Moore paced the team with nine assists in the two games.
UMSL enters Thursday evening's contest having given up the second fewest points per game in the GLVC this season at 67.1 per contest and have held opposing teams to 42.9 shooting percentage which is fifth in the league.
Vincent Davis III continues lead the conference in field goal percentage at 56.7 percent while
Miles Boland is second in total assists with 112, third in assists per game (4.7) and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.3.
About Upper Iowa – The Peacocks enter Thursday's contest with a record of 14-8 overall including 9-6 in the GLVC but have dropped five of their last six games and are currently seventh in the GLVC PRS holding a 0.16 lead over UMSL.
Upper Iowa fell at Missouri S&T 88-71 last Thursday and at Lincoln 72-65 on Saturday afternoon.
Kyle Hrncir is the team's leader in scoring (17.9), rebounding (9.2), assists with 86 and steals (36). Trey Lewis is second on the team in scoring with 15 points per contest and second with 66 assists.
The Peacocks are averaging 84 points per outing which is second in the GLVC but are giving up nearly 80 points per contest.
About Quincy – The Hawks enter Thursday's game against Lincoln with a record of 8-14 including 3-11 in the GLVC and have dropped six straight. Quincy lost on a last second shot at Drury last Thursday then hung tough but ultimately fell at No. 24 Missouri S&T 83-74 on Saturday.
Tieman Stynes is the team's leading scorer at 14.6 points per game while Camren Kincaid and Ethan Bolton are contributing 13.9 and 13.0 points per contest respectively. Bolton also leads the Hawks with an average of 7.0 boards per game while Kincaid has distributed a team-high 74 assists.
