UMSL Second Half Run Falls Short, Fall 61-61

Wells Scores Career High 28 Points; SIUE Spoils UMSL Homecoming

St. Louis, Mo. – The UMSL men’s basketball team saw its homecoming game spoiled by local rival SIUE. The Rivermen used a second half run to pull close, but the Cougars held on to defeat the Rivermen 63-61, handing UMSL its 17th-straight loss of the season.

In the first half, SIUE got the quick start, jumping out to a 7-2 lead in the opening three minutes. The Cougars then pushed their advantage out to seven points at 12-5 before the Rivermen responded with back-to-back buckets by Jo’Van Fisher and Qwanzi Samuels to make it a 12-9 game at the 13:32 mark of the first half. From there, the Cougars reeled off six-straight points to take an 18-9 lead. SIUE would lead by as many as 15 points in the first half at 27-12 with six minutes remaining. UMSL again made a charge, using an 8-0 run to close the game again. Larry Wells hit a big three pointer in that stretch and the Rivermen went into the lockerroom trailing 35-25.

The second half started slowly for the Rivermen, as UMSL went scoreless in the first six minutes of the half and SIUE extended their lead to 16 points at 43-27. UMSL then slowly chipped away at the lead, getting it down to seven points at 48-41 after a pair of Larry Wells free throws. Trailing by seven, UMSL could not cut it any closer, committing two turnovers on consecutive possessions before SIUE got a three pointer from Justin Ward to make it a ten-point game at 51-41. The Rivermen failed to give in, and again chipped away at the lead, getting it back down to six points after two-straight buckets from Daryl Saine, making it 53-47 with 6:36 remaining in the game.

SIUE would hold on to a nine-point lead at 58-49 with 5:21 left in the game when the Rivermen made their big charge. After three free throws by Larry Wells made it 58-51, Wells then got a steal on the defensive end and came down to hit a big three pointer, making it 58-54 with just under five minutes to go. SIUE got a free throw, and UMSL came back with a jumper by Jo’Van Fisher and a jumper by Glenn Keller to cut the Cougar lead to just one point at 59-58 with 3:37 left in the game. Wells then hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 59-59. The Cougars got a free throw from Ron Heflin to retake the lead at 60-59 with 2:15 remaining, and Glenn Keller hit one of two free throws to knot the game at 60-60 with one minute to play. The Rivermen then took their first lead of the game on a free throw by Larry Wells to lead 61-60, but SIUE got two clutch free throws with 0:08 left by Ron Jones to take control of the game at 62-61 and would hold on for the 63-61 win.

UMSL was led by Larry Wells with a career-high 28 points on the night. Wells hit 7-of-14 from the floor, including 6-of-8 from three-pointer range, as 8-of-11 from line while also recording four rebounds and five steals. SIUE had four players in double figures, led by Ron Heflin with 17 points and Justin Ward with 15. UMSL was plagued by bad free-throw shooting as the Rivermen hit just 11-of-23 (.478) from the line.

The Rivermen fall to 5-20 on the season and 2-17 in the GLVC. UMSL will play a non-conference game at home on Wednesday, February 26 against Lincoln before closing out the regular season with a home game against Southern Indiana on Saturday, March 1.