Junior guard Matt Enright scored a game-high 24 points in UMSL’s win over Lewis University on Thursday. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| NCAA Men’s Basketball | 1 | 2 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|
| UMSL (11-10, 9-5) | 21 | 56 | 77 |
| Lewis (13-7, 8-5) | 33 | 33 | 66 |
DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer
ROMEOVILLE, IL — A slow start first half turned into red-hot second for the University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team on its way to a thrilling 77-66 win on the road over Lewis University, in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game at Neil Carey Arena outside of Chicago.
UMSL trailed by 12 going into halftime, but came out and scored a season-best, one half-best 56 points and blew by Lewis for a convincing 11-point win.
The Tritons are now 11-10 on the season and 9-5 in the GLVC. The win moved UMSL into a third-place tie with Upper Iowa in the GLVC standings.
Lewis fell to 13-7 overall and 8-5 in the conference.
Junior Savon Wykle scored 23 points in UMSL’s win over Lewis on Thursday. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
UMSL led by as many as eight in the first half but except for a brief stretch struggled on the offensive end hitting only 8 of its 28 shots from the floor, were 2-of-14 from beyond the arc and shot 38 percent at the foul line.
Lewis outscored the Tritons 29-9 over the final 12:30 of the half to take a 33-21 lead into the locker room at the break.
UMSL came out hot to start the second 20 minutes hitting 14 of its first 17 shots and outscored the Flyers 35-12 over the first 12 minutes of the frame to build its largest lead of the contest at 56-45 after a dunk from Troy Glover II.
Lewis made things interesting over the next five minutes outscoring the Tritons 11-3 to pull within 59-56 on a three-pointer from Devon VanderHeydt at the 3:09 mark.
Matt Enright silenced the run answering with a three 0:23 later sparking a 7-0 run to put UMSL back up by 10 more than a minute later.
The Flyers got as close as seven with 1:08 remaining but wouldn’t get any closer as the Tritons hit 9 of their final 10 free throws and got another dunk from Glover to seal the win.
After its slow start, UMSL finished the game shooting 48 percent (25-for-52) from the field including 8-of-22 from three and shot 73 percent (19-for-26) at the foul line. The Tritons outrebounded Lewis 36-34 and had 15 assists on 25 made baskets.
Enright scored 21 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, while Savon Wykle added 23, and Glover finished with a double-double, recording 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Flyers were held to 23-for-56 shooting (41 percent) from the floor in the contest, shot 30 percent from three and were 14-of-21 from the foul line. Rob Stroud led four Lewis players in double figures with 16 points. Jaylin Gibson added 14 points, Anthony Sayles Jr., finished with 13 points and Vanderheydt had 11 points.
The Tritons will be back in action on Saturday, when they’ll travel to Indianapolis to play the University of Indianapolis, in a 2:30 p.m. contest at Nicoson Hall.
UMSL 77
| ## | Player | GS | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | ORB-DRB | REB | PF | A | TO | BLK | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03 | Enright, Matt | * | 40 | 6-13 | 4-9 | 8-8 | 0-2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 24 |
| 20 | Wykle, Savon | * | 40 | 7-12 | 3-8 | 6-6 | 0-3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 23 |
| 35 | Glover II, Troy | * | 30 | 7-8 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 2-8 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| 12 | Prospere II, Emanuel | * | 40 | 2-10 | 1-1 | 1-2 | 0-6 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 10 | Harris, Janeir | * | 38 | 2-7 | 0-3 | 1-2 | 3-8 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 23 | Purvey, Iziah | 10 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0-2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| 01 | Parker, Quenton | 2 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TM | TEAM | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | – | 200 | 25-52 | 8-22 | 19-26 | 5-31 | 36 | 17 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 77 |
Lewis 66
| ## | Player | GS | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | ORB-DRB | REB | PF | A | TO | BLK | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Stroud,Rob | * | 38 | 7-17 | 1-6 | 1-4 | 2-10 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 16 |
| 03 | Gibson,Jaylin | * | 33 | 3-7 | 1-2 | 7-8 | 0-4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 |
| 24 | Vanderheydt,Devon | * | 33 | 2-7 | 2-5 | 5-7 | 1-3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 22 | Warden,Paxton | * | 33 | 1-4 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 33 | Renfro,Ryan | * | 4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 01 | Sayles Jr.,Anthony | 30 | 6-10 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 | |
| 23 | Kirciman,Cem | 19 | 3-7 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| 12 | Brownfield,Carson | 7 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 42 | Kapustka,Bartosz | 2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | Anderson,Marieon | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TM | TEAM | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | – | 200 | 23-56 | 6-20 | 14-21 | 7-27 | 34 | 20 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 66 |
2024-25 UMSL TRITONS MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
| Date | Time | At | Opponent | Location | Results/W-L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 8, 2024 (Friday) | 2 p.m. | Neutral | Michigan Tech | Wisconsin Dells, Wis. | L 72-57 (0-1) |
| November 9, 2024 (Saturday) | 7 p.m. | Neutral | Northern Michigan | Wisconsin Dells, Wis. | L 77-63 (0-2) |
| November 13, 2024 (Wednesday) | 6 p.m. | Home | Winona State | Mark Twain Building | W 72-62 (0-3) |
| November 21, 2024 (Thursday) | 5:30 p.m. | Neutral | Alabama – Huntsville | Lebanon, Ill. | L 74-63 (0-4) |
| November 22, 2024 (Friday) | 5:30 p.m. | Neutral | Lake Superior State | Lebanon, Ill. | L 59-46 (0-5) |
| November 30, 2024 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Away | Illinois-Springfield | Springfield, Ill. | W 69-64 (1-5) |
| December 2, 2024 (Monday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | Maryville | Mark Twain Building | W 83-53 (2-5) |
| December 5, 2024 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | UIndy | Mark Twain Building | W 66-59 (3-5) |
| December 7, 2024 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Home | Lewis | Mark Twain Building | L 81-61 (3-6) |
| December 17, 2024 (Tuesday) | 3 p.m. | Neutral | Pittsburg State | San Antonio, Texas | W 62-58 (4-6) |
| December 18, 2024 (Wednesday) | 1 p.m. | Neutral | Rogers State | San Antonio, Texas | W 67-57 (5-6) |
| January 3, 2025 (Friday) | 7:30 p.m. | Away | Upper Iowa | Fayette, Iowa | W 75-73 (6-6) |
| January 5, 2025 (Sunday) | 3 p.m. | Away | Quincy | Quincy, Ill. | postponed |
| January 9, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | Southwest Baptist | Mark Twain Building | postponed |
| January 11, 2025 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Home | Rockhurst | Mark Twain Building | L 88-71 (6-7) |
| January 13, 2025 (Monday) | 5:30 pm | Home | Southwest Baptist | Mark Twain Building | W 71-65 (7-7) |
| January 16, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Away | Lincoln | Jefferson City, Mo. | W 69-51 (8-7) |
| January 18, 2025 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Away | #17 Missouri S&T | Rolla, Mo. | L 88-84 (8-8) |
| January 20, 2025 (Monday) | 6 p.m. | Away | Quincy | Quincy, Ill. | L 79-76 (8-9) |
| January 23, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Away | Maryville | St. Louis, Mo. | W 91-66 (9-9) |
| January 30, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | Illinois-Springfield | Mark Twain Building | W 74-66 (10-9) |
| February 1, 2025 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Home | McKendree | Mark Twain Building | L 68-66 (10-10) |
| February 6, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Away | Lewis | Romeoville, Ill. | W 77-66 (11-10) |
| February 8, 2025 (Saturday) | 2:30 p.m. | Away | UIndy | Indianapolis, Ind. | |
| February 13, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | Quincy | Mark Twain Building | |
| February 15, 2025 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Home | Upper Iowa | Mark Twain Building | |
| February 20, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Away | William Jewell | Liberty, Mo. | |
| February 22, 2025 (Saturday) | 3 p.m. | Away | Truman State | Kirksville, Mo. | |
| February 27, 2025 (Thursday) | 7:30 p.m. | Home | Drury | Mark Twain Building | |
| March 6-9, 2025 | TBD | Neutral | GLVC Tournament | St. Charles, Mo. / Hyland Arena |