Greyhounds Sprint Past Rivermen

UMSL Loses to 16th-Ranked Indianapolis

Indianapolis, Ind. – The UMSL men’s basketball team ran into yet another ranked conference opponent, losing at 16th-ranked Indianapolis 78-54 on Saturday afternoon.

UMSL got the first points of the game as Ronnie Banks (Birmingham, Ala./Phillips), who was playing on his birthday, got a three pointer for a quick Rivermen lead. After another three pointer from Sherome Cole (Sikeston, Mo./Sikeston) at the 16:21 mark, UMSL led by six points, which would be its largest lead of the game. The first half was a back and forth battle the rest of the way as the first half action saw a total of three lead changes and seven ties. After UMSL’s six-point lead, the Rivermen refused to give up that lead, holding the lead from the Greyhounds for the next six minutes.

Indianapolis would take a brief lead at 20-18 before UMSL got a layup from Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) to tie it up again with under eight minutes left in the half. Sherome Cole would then hit a layup to give UMSL its last lead of the game at 30-28 before the Greyhounds recaptured the lead and went into halftime leading by two points, 34-32.

The Greyhounds then opened the second half with a 9-2 run that pushed their lead out to nine points at 43-34 just four minutes into the second half. UMSL would cut that lead down to just five points at 47-42 with 12:06 remaining when the Greyhounds sprinted ahead of the Rivermen, going on a 20-1 run over the next five minutes, getting four three pointers over that stretch to take control of the game and cruise from there for the 78-54 win.

UMSL was led by Sherome Cole with a career high 16 points, including 11 points in the first half. Cole hit 6-of-10 from the field and 4-5 from three-point range. Jonathan Griffin added 14 points and birthday boy Ronnie Banks had 12 points, four assists and three steals in the game. The Rivermen are now 4-9 on the season and 1-6 in the GLVC. UMSL will be at home this coming weekend, hosting Bellarmine on Thursday at 7:45 pm, and then hosting Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday at 315 pm.