Yaakema Rose had 18 points and 12 rebounds in UMSL’s blowout win over No. 1 seed Walsh, Saturday night, in an NCAA Tournament second round game played in North Canton, Ohio. (Photo courtesy: UMSL Athletics)

Team	1	2	F
UMSL	50	37	87
Walsh	27	31	58

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

One night after squeaking out a win over rival Truman State, the University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team absolutely blew the doors off No. 1 seeded Walsh University, in an 87-58 thrashing, that ended the host Cavaliers’ season and will send the Tritons to the Midwest Regional championship game.

UMSL, which had also defeated Walsh when the teams played each other in the first game of the season back in November, scored a season-high 50 points in the first half on Saturday, and led by 22 points at halftime, before simply cruising to one of its biggest wins of the year.

“I was really thrilled about our defensive effort in the first half,” UMSL head coach Bob Sundvold said. “I thought we continued to carry over from the previous game. I think it really set the tone. It was a great win for us, a great win for UMSL, and we’re looking forward to the next round.”

The No. 5 seed Tritons (26-6) will play the No. 3 seed Hillsdale (22-7) in the Midwest regional final on Monday, at Walsh’s Alumni Arena in North Canton, Ohio. The Chargers made it to the title game by defeating No. 2 seed Ferris State, 90-74, on Saturday night as well.

“We’ll be spending these next two days learning as much as we can about that team,” Sundvold said. “I do know they’re a lot like us, a very good defensive team that has guys that can score too. It should be an interesting matchup. We’re looking forward to it.”

On Saturday, UMSL, which has now won 12 games in a row, was led by seniors Jose Grubbs, who had 19 points, and Yaakema Rose, Jr., who had 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

The Tritons also got good nights from Marty Jackson (12 points), Shane Wissink (11 points), and Marquis Collins, who came off the bench to score nine points, on three-of-three from beyound the three-point line.

Walsh actually led in the very early going, but that was short-lived. Grubbs got fouled on a three-point attempt four minutes in, and he made all three free throws. That gave UMSL a lead it would never let go.

The key sequence in the game though, came in the final seven minutes of the first half, when the Tritons went on a 21-4 run that turned a 26-21 lead into a 47-25 smothering that forced Walsh to burn two timeouts as it tried to solve UMSL’s defense. None of it seemed to help, so UMSL led 50-27 going into the half.

“I’ll be honest, I might be the most surprised guy in the place tonight,” Sundvold said. “I have a lot of respect for (Walsh coach Jeff Young) and this program. We’ve faced them before and played a lot of great games against one another. I was very surprised that we were able to take control and keep it like we did.”

In the second half, Walsh never got closer than 18 points, and UMSL led by as many as 33 points, before finally closing out the game with a 29-point win.

“This was a big win for us, we’re all very excited,” Rose said. “We’re a defensive team. We play together. We feed off each other. We’re excited about how far we can go.”

The UMSL-Hillsdale regional final will tipoff at 6 p.m. on Monday, with the winner advancing to the national quarterfinals (Elite 8), which will be played in Evansville, Ind., March 22-26. The NCAA Division II National Championship Game is March 26, and will be televised live by CBS Sports.

Missouri-St. Louis 87

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
35	Jose Grubbs	*	27	5-10	3-6	6-6	1-1	2	2	1	3	0	1	19
04	Yaakema Rose	*	29	8-14	0-1	2-3	3-9	12	0	4	0	0	5	18
21	Marty Jackson	*	26	5-10	0-1	2-2	1-1	2	3	1	3	1	1	12
02	Shane Wissink	*	37	4-8	3-7	0-0	0-4	4	1	0	0	0	1	11
23	Steve Webb	*	18	1-4	0-0	2-2	1-0	1	4	2	1	0	0	4
01	Marquis Collins		15	3-4	3-3	0-0	0-1	1	3	0	0	0	2	9
11	Isaiah Fuller		24	1-5	1-1	2-3	1-2	3	2	4	0	1	1	5
05	Trever Moore		13	2-4	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	2	2	0	0	0	4
15	Myles Cephas		2	1-2	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
13	Kellen King		5	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	1	0	1	2
03	Lawrence Brazil III		3	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
12	Sam Richardson		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	3-3	6	0	0	1	0	0	0
	TOTALS	–	200	31-63	11-24	14-16	10-24	34	17	15	9	2	12	87

Walsh 58

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
12	Caleb Canter	*	32	6-12	0-0	3-4	4-2	6	3	0	0	1	0	15
01	Tim Smith, Jr.	*	35	5-15	0-5	1-2	8-4	12	4	0	1	2	1	11
21	Garrison Keeslar	*	35	4-11	0-2	0-0	2-6	8	4	2	5	0	0	8
03	Darryl Straughter	*	30	1-12	1-7	2-2	1-3	4	0	0	2	0	0	5
02	Milan Square	*	17	0-4	0-3	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
11	Luke Howes		21	3-5	0-1	1-3	0-4	4	3	2	3	0	0	7
42	Brent Walker		10	1-1	0-0	3-4	4-0	4	2	1	0	1	0	5
33	Owen Hazelbaker		10	1-1	1-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	0	2	0	0	3
04	Drue Moore		1	1-1	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3
23	Quentin Toles		5	0-2	0-0	1-2	0-2	2	0	1	0	0	0	1
20	Logan Murray		2	0-2	0-2	0-0	0-1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	Ryan Smith		1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
14	Zakai Alexander		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	4-0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	–	200	22-66	3-22	11-17	23-23	46	16	7	16	4	1	58