Quincy Beats UMSL Despite Late Rally by Rivermen

Rivermen Second Half Rally Comes up Short

Quincy, Ill. - The UMSL men's basketball team saw a big second half rally fall short against Quincy, falling 82-68 Saturday evening. The Rivermen trailed by as many as 23 points in the game and 17 in the second half before Ronnie Banks ignited a rally that cut the lead to just six points with five minute to play.

Quincy used a barrage of three-pointers to take control of the game early in the first half. After Justin Foust scored the first bucket of the game for UMSL, Quincy scored the next eight points of the game to lead 8-2. The Hawks then used three straight three pointers later in the half to push the lead up to 17 points at 22-5. UMSL would try to come back, scoring seven straight points to cut the lead to ten at 26-16 with seven minutes in the half. The Hawk responded with 12 straight points of their own and led by as many as 23 points before settling for a 49-28 halftime lead. In the first half, Quincy hit 7-of-13 from three-point range, including hitting six of their first eight attempts beyond the arc to grab the early lead.

In the second half, the Rivermen failed to give up, opening the half with a 12-2 run and cut the Quincy lead to ten points at 51-41 at the 16-minute mark. The Hawks would again add to their lead, pushing it up to 17 points at 60-43 at the 12:18 mark before UMSL made another to cut into the lead. With the lead at 15 points, 66-51, the Rivermen went on a 12-3 run, including 10 straight points by Ronnie Banks to make it a six-point game at 69-63 with juts 5:28 to play. UMSL would trail again by just six points at the 4:24 mark, 71-65, before Quincy got a couple of big baskets to push the lead back to 11 points at 76-65 with just over three minutes remaining and would hold on for the 82-68 win.

UMSL was led by Ronnie Banks, who helped ignite the second half rally, finishing with a game-high 26 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, including 5-of-9 from three-point range. Jonathan Griffin added 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Quincy was led by Phil Gettinger with 17 points. The Rivermen fall to 5-6 on the season and 2-4 in the GLVC.