ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team begins its second to last home stand of the season this Thursday hosting the University of Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building. The homestand concludes on Saturday against Lewis at 3 p.m.
The Tritons enter play Thursday with a record of 12-10 but are 6-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference after dropping a couple of tough road games last weekend. UMSL is tied for eighth in the standings with Southwest Baptist with the top eight teams advancing to the GLVC Tournament which will be held March 5-8 at the Mark Twain Building.
Taye Moore averaged 22 points per game in the two contests last week highlighted by his 25-point performance at McKendree last Thursday. He shot 57 percent from the floor including 71 percent from the three-point line and sank all 15 of his free throw attempts.
Jake Hamilton and
Miles Boland each averaged 13.5 points per outing. Hamilton nearly averaged a double-double for the week as he also led the squad with 9.5 rebounds per contest.
Moore continues to be the team's leading scorer with 15 points per game while Hamilton is contributing 11.6 ppg and
Vincent Davis III is dropping home 10.3 points per outing. Davis and Hamilton are tied for the team lead in rebounding with 5.6 boards per game.
Boland leads the GLVC in total assists with 105, is second in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.6 and is third assists per game with 4.8 per contest. Davis is second in the conference in field goal percentage at 57.3 percent and Moore is eighth in three-point field goal percentage connecting on 36.1 percent of his attempts.
About UIndy – The Greyhounds enter Thursday's contest with an overall record of 11-10 but are 9-4 in league play and are coming off back-to-back home wins over Missouri S&T and Lincoln last weekend.
Shaun Arnold had a standout performance last Thursday against the Miners recording season-highs in four categories. He scored 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting in 36 minutes of play. He followed it up with 16 points and a season-high 14 rebounds in Saturday's win over the Blue Tigers.
Nate Dudukovich and Tyler Parrish led the way in scoring against Lincoln with 23 and 22 points respectively.
Carmelo Harris is the Hounds leading scorer at 16.6 points per contest and has a team-high 65 assists. He is shooting 89.7 percent at the foul line which is tops in the GLVC and ranks sixth in three-point field goal percentage (40.3 percent). Parrish and Arnold are contributing 12.2 and 10.5 points per game respectively and Arnold is the team's leading rebounder with 8.1 per outing.
About Lewis – It's been a tough year for the Flyers as they enter Thursday's contest at Lincoln with a record of 4-16 including 2-10 in the GLVC. Lewis dropped a pair of home contests last weekend to Drury and Missouri S&T and has currently lost seven straight.
One of the bright spots for the Flyers this season has been the play of Arius Alijosius who leads the team in scoring at 18.7 points per game which ranks fourth best in the league. Collin Albert is averaging 13.3 points and Ryan Hall is at 10.0 points per contest.
