The UMSL Tritons celebrate winning their first Great Lakes Valley Conference championship, Sunday afternoon, at First Community Arena in Edwardsville. (Photo: Nathan Assata)

Team	1	2	Total
UIndy	28	28	56
UMSL	36	30	66

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

EDWARDSVILLE, IL — The University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team won its first ever Great Lakes Valley Conference championship, Sunday afternoon, when it defeated the University of Indianapolis, 66-56, in the GLVC Tournament championship game at SIUE’s First Community Arena.

UMSL, which won the GLVC Central Division title during the regular season and came into the tournament as the No. 4 seed, knocked off McKendree, Southern Indiana, William Jewell, and then UIndy, in a spectacular four-game run that earned the Tritons their first conference championship in program history.

“You know, it’s just a thrill to see this with these guys and their families, I’m just thrilled,” UMSL head coach Bob Sunvold said. “Most of these guys have been here four years, five years. And we’ve been through some stuff together. It’s just a thrill to see them celebrate winning together.”

Senior guard Shane Wissink led the Tritons with 19 points, including five three-pointers, which helped the him earn Tournament MVP honors.

The sharpshooter from Wisconsin, also had a spectacular game in the quarterfinals, when he scored 28 points and hit seven three-pointers in an UMSL blowout win over No. 5 seed Southern Indiana.

“Probably the coolest moment of my life,” Wissink said in a post on his Twitter account. “It’s been a roller coaster of a year personally, being out 6 straight weeks with mono/covid/injury, but the one constant has been these guys and their extreme confidence in me and my game. I love my brothers man, what a moment.”

Redshirt sophomore Isaiah Fuller came off the bench to score 15 points, while starters Steve Webb and Marty Jackson added 12 points apiece for the Tritons, who overcame a ridiculously bad start to pull off the win.

UMSL began the game by missing its first 12 shots (and two free throws, while UIndy opened the night with an 18-0 run that left everyone in the building stunned.

“I think one of our coaches said during a timeout or something, I’ve never seen anyone fall behind 18-0,” Sunvold said. “And I said to him, ‘well, you must not have ever been around any bad teams, because that happens a lot to them.

“But I could tell in the locker room, our guys were a little nervous. And I knew they would settle down. We have a lot of older guys on our team. They’re very mature. So I knew they’d work their way back into the game.”

And work their way back they did, as the veteran Tritons responded with a furious 32-5 run, which was capped by four straight three-pointers by Wissink, that gave UMSL a lead it would never relinquish.

In fact, after being down by 18, the Tritons actually led by eight points at halftime and held that lead the entire second half.

UIndy did pull to within one point with 14 minutes to go, and two points with four minutes left, but UMSL closed the night with a 10-2 run that kept the Greyhounds at bay and allowed the Tritons to claim their first GLVC championship ever.

“This is unbelievable, man,” Webb, one of UMSL’s team leaders, who also had game-highs of six rebounds and four assists in the game, said in an interview with KSDK-Channel 5’s Frank Cusamamo. “We’ve had some ups and some downs. We almost won this two years ago, but lost in the final seconds. We made the NCAA Tournament, but didn’t get to play because of covid. But we just kept believing in each other and now we’re here. This is fantastic, man. I can’t believe it.”

Winning the GLVC Tournament means not only will the Tritons get to hang a championship banner in the Mark Twain Building, but they’ll also receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

UPDATE: UMSL was named the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region, which will be hosted in North Canton, OH, by top-seeded Walsh University – the same team UMSL defeated in both teams’ season opener back in November.

In that first round matchup, the Tritons (26-4) will play No. 4 seed and GLVC rival, Truman State. The Bulldogs (20-9) earned the higher seed, despite finishing lower in the standings, because they won both regular season games against UMSL this season.

The NCAA Tournament game will be played on Friday, March 11, and will tipoff at 6:30 p.m. The winner of the UMSL-Truman State will likely play top-seeded Walsh in the second round on Saturday, March 12.

“We’ll be ready no matter who we play,” Sunvold, whose team has won 10 games in a row and 12 of its last 13, said. “We’re a tight group and our guys are playing really well right now. I’m exciting about what we can do in the tournament.”

UIndy 56

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
22	Miller Jr.,Cory	*	37	6-14	1-2	3-3	1-2	3	2	4	5	1	1	16
03	Bingham,Jesse	*	25	4-10	2-3	1-2	1-2	3	4	1	4	0	1	11
23	Robinson,Jakobie	*	31	3-11	2-9	0-0	1-7	8	1	2	2	2	0	8
10	Montgomery,Dee	*	30	2-5	2-4	0-0	1-2	3	4	3	2	0	0	6
01	Tchoua,Kendrick	*	14	2-2	0-0	1-3	0-4	4	2	1	2	0	0	5
21	Steinfeld,Julian		25	4-5	0-0	0-0	4-9	13	1	0	1	3	1	8
02	Tynes,Josiah		24	1-7	0-4	0-0	0-1	1	2	0	0	0	0	2
05	Etherington,Aaron		9	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-0	1	2	0	2	0	0	0
04	Nicoson,Ben		5	0-0	0-0	0-1	0-1	1	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	22-54	7-22	5-9	10-29	39	18	11	18	6	3	56

UMSL 66

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
02	Shane Wissink	*	40	5-7	5-7	4-4	0-3	3	2	2	1	0	0	19
23	Steve Webb	*	31	6-11	0-0	0-0	2-2	4	4	6	2	1	4	12
21	Marty Jackson	*	26	6-20	0-1	0-2	6-2	8	1	0	3	1	0	12
35	Jose Grubbs	*	16	1-4	0-1	0-0	0-2	2	2	2	0	0	1	2
04	Yaakema Rose	*	22	0-6	0-1	1-4	1-5	6	2	0	2	0	2	1
11	Isaiah Fuller		31	4-7	0-0	7-8	0-4	4	1	0	0	0	0	15
05	Trever Moore		20	1-3	1-2	0-0	0-1	1	0	1	0	0	1	3
01	Marquis Collins		14	1-5	0-3	0-0	2-2	4	2	0	0	0	2	2
13	Kellen King		0+	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	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	–	200	24-63	6-15	12-18	14-24	38	14	11	8	2	10	66