Valiant Effort by Rivermen Falls Short Against SIUE

Cougars Defeat UMSL 75-64

St. Louis, Mo. – The UMSL men’s basketball team had a slow start with just 19 first half points against SIUE, but fought back hard in the second half before eventually falling 75-64 to the Cougars.

SIUE controlled the entire first half, grabbing the first lead at 2-0 and slowly pushing it out to a 13-point advantage at halftime, leading 32-19 at the break. The Cougars came out on first to start the second half as well by scoring the first nine points of the half and increasing their lead to 41-19. The Cougars would lead by as many as 23 points, 52-29, with 11 minutes remaining with UMSL made a late charge.

Down by 23 points, UMSL went on an 18-2 run over the next six minutes, with nine of those 18 points scored by Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy). The UMSL defense forced three turnovers and limited SIUE to just two free throws over that stretch and cut the lead down to seven points, 54-47, with five minutes left in the game. SIUE bounced back and scored four of the next six points to push the lead back to 11, but UMSL failed to cave in, scoring the next seven points and cut the gap to four points at 60-56 after a fastbreak layup by Griffin with just under three minutes remaining. SIUE would hold strong, hitting 15-of-18 free throws over those final three minutes to preserve the 75-64 victory.

UMSL was led by Jonathan Griffin with a game high 23 points, and Kevin Nordmann (Webster Groves, Mo./Webster Groves) added 15. SIUE was led by Joel Jaye off the bench with 19 points and Ron Jones with 16. UMSL falls to 4-6 overall and 1-3 in the GLVC while SIUE improves to 7-4 overall and 3-2 in the GLVC.