UMSL Scores Second Straight Win

Griffin Scores 26 Points; Green Scores 20 Points for Rivermen

Romeoville, Ill. – The Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team won their second straight road game this weekend with a 76-74 win over Lewis University. Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) led UMSL with 26 points and five assists, and Aaron Green (St. Louis, Mo./Riverview Gardens) added 20 points in the win as the Rivermen hit 25-of-26 from the free throw line as a team to secure the win.

It took over two minutes for either team to score before Aaron Green got the first points of the game with a three pointer. From there, the Rivermen quickly jumped out to a 12-point lead at 20-8 in the opening eight minutes of the ball game, hitting four three pointers with two each from Green and Jonathan Griffin. Lewis got right back in the game as the Flyers used a 9-2 run to cut the UMSL lead down to five points. Leading 22-17, Griffin gave UMSL a bigger cushion with consecutive three pointers to push it back out to an 11-point game at 28-17. Another spurt by the Flyers, who went on an 8-2 run, closed the gap again as the Rivermen lead was cut to five points again at 32-27. Lewis could get no closer than three points the rest of the half as UMSL took a 40-35 lead going into the break.

The Rivermen got a quick start in the second half as Joey Paul (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) got the first field goal of the half as UMSL pushed its lead out to seven points at 46-39. Lewis then scored seven straight points to tie the game at 46-46, and would eventually grab the lead at 50-48 with 12:14 left in the game. That would be the last lead for the Flyers as Aaron Green hit a jumper on UMSL’s next possession to tie the game and then hit a pair of free throws to give the Rivermen the lead for good at 52-50. The Rivermen would push their lead out to as many as eight points and held that lead as late as the 4:25 mark in the game. The Flyers would hang close, using an 8-2 run late in the game to cut the UMSL lead to just one point at 73-72 with less than a minute to play before some late free throws by Joey Paul sealed the second straight road conference win for UMSL with the 76-74 win over Lewis.

UMSL was led by Jonathan Griffin who had 20 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 26 points in the game. Griffin hit 6-of-15 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range and was a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line while pulling down five rebounds and handed out five assists. Aaron Green added 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, hitting 2-of-3 from three-point range and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line. Derrell Minner (New Madrid, Mo./New Madrid Central) and David Ward (Maryland Heights, Mo./DeSmet) each pulled down a team-best eight rebounds in the win as well. As a team, the Rivermen hit 25-of-26 from the free-throw line, missing just one on the night.

The Rivermen have now won two straight games for the first time this season, getting two road conference wins after beating Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night. UMSL improves to 4-10 on the season and 3-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. UMSL will be at home again on Tuesday when they host Robert Morris (Ill.) beginning at 7 pm.