umsl-sports - men's basketball

Banks, Griffin Lead UMSL to Big Road Win

Rivermen Beat Wisconsin-Parkside 81-76

Kenosha, Wis. – Ronnie Banks (Birmingham, Ala./Phillips) and Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) each scored 26 points to help lead the Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team to an 81-76 victory on the road over Wisconsin-Parkside.

Jonathan Griffin got the first bucket of the game to get the scoring started in the first half as UMSL jumped out to a quick five-point lead. The Rangers came back and grabbed the lead at the 14:20 mark of the first half, and led by four points with 6:49 left in the half. UMSL then used a 9-1 run, getting all nine points from Ronnie Banks and Griffin, to retake the lead at 27-23 and held that four-point lead going into halftime at 38-34.

Wisconsin-Parkside came out strong to start the second half, outscoring UMSL 20-3 over the first eight minutes of the half and led 54-41. UMSL was still down by ten points, 64-54 with 7:33 left in the game when the Rivermen would make their run with an 11-2 run. The scoring started on a pair of David Watkins (Florissant, Mo./Desmet), followed by three straight three pointers from Kevin Nordmann (Webster Groves, Mo./Webster Groves), Ronnie Banks and Jonathan Griffin to pull UMSL within one point at 66-65. Banks would give UMSL its first lead of the second half on a three pointer with 2:46 remaining and the Rangers came right back with a layup to retake the lead again. On the ensuing possession, Banks hit another jumper to give UMSL a lead it would hold the rest of the game as the Rivermen held on for the 81-76 victory.

Ronnie Banks and Jonathan Griffin each had 26 points to lead all scorers. Banks hit 9-of-13 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range while Griffin hit 8-of-14 from the field and 8-of-12 from the free throw line while grabbing five rebounds.

The Rivermen improve to 7-12 on the season and 3-9 in the GLVC. UMSL will be at home this weekend, hosting nationally ranked Indianapolis on Thursday at 7:45 pm and then hosting Northern Kentucky on Saturday at 3:15 pm.