ST. LOUIS – With the 2025-26 season regular season down to its final two weeks, the University of Missouri-St. Louis is looking to secure a postseason spot as it hosts Truman State and William Jewell this weekend at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons and Bulldogs meet on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and then the Cardinals come to town for a 3 p.m. tip on Saturday afternoon.

The team will honor senior Blessed Barhayiga in a ceremony before the start of the contest.

UMSL enters Thursday's contest against Truman battling it out with them, Drury and Southwest Baptist for the final spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament which will be held March 5 – 8 at the Mark Twain Building on UMSL's campus.

The Tritons currently hold that coveted eighth spot in the latest edition of the GLVC's Point Ratings System (PRS) that determines the eight teams that make the tournament. UMSL has a PRS of 3.06 and are 0.9 points ahead of Truman with the Bulldogs having an additional game to play. Drury and Southwest Baptist are tied for 10th with a PRS of 2.91. Those two teams play each other on Thursday night at Drury at 7:45 p.m.

After a tough loss at Upper Iowa last Thursday, UMSL bounced back with a 74-64 win at Quincy last Saturday. Demetris Phillips and Taye Moore led the way for the Tritons with 18 points apiece while Makeer Makeer added 13 points and eight rebounds.

UMSL enters Thursday's game ranked second in the GLVC in scoring defense giving up just 66.9 points per game and have the third best field goal percentage in the league at 47.2 percent.

Vincent Davis III is second in field goal percentage in the conference making 56 percent of his attempts from the field. Miles Boland is tied for the league lead in total assists with 121, is second in assists per game (4.7) and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.2.

About Truman State – The Bulldogs enter Thursday's game with a record of 10-14 including 7-9 in the GLVC and are coming off a 93-79 loss at the hands of Lincoln last Saturday. TSU has lost four of its last six games overall.

Julian Brown and Jahki Parrinello lead the Bulldogs in scoring at 15.1 and 14.6 points per game. They're joined in double figures by Emmanuel Byrd and Ja'Vion Byers with 10.8 and 10.0 points per outing respectively. Byrd leads the team and the GLVC in rebounding with 9.1 boards per contest. He also leads Truman with 28 steals and 25 blocked shots.

About William Jewell – The Cardinals enter Thursday night's contest at Lincoln having won 11 of their last 12 games and are 16-8 overall including 12-4 in the GLVC. They're ranked third in the latest edition of the PRS with a point total of 3.969 and are just .002 points behind UIndy for the number two seed.

WJC is one of the top three-point shooting teams in the conference this season averaging 10 made threes per game and are shooting 36.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Justice Sutton leads WJC and is fourth in the GLVC in scoring with 19.6 points per game. He averaged 29 points per game in the Cardinals wins over Drury and Missouri S&T last week to earn GLVC Player of the Week honors. Bradley Lightbourne is contributing 14.5 points per outing and leads the team with 18 blocked shots.