Late Drought Results in Tough Loss for UMSL

Rivermen Fall 67-60 at SIU Edwardsville

Edwardsville, Ill. – The Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team had a late scoring drought in a back-and-forth battle with SIU Edwardsville that results in a 67-60 loss to the Cougars. Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) led UMSL with a game-high 21 points and had six rebounds and five assists in the loss.

Chris Mroz (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick) hit a three pointer to give UMSL an early 3-2 lead, and the Rivermen stayed ahead for the next five minutes of play. SIUE would take a short lead at 13-12, but UMSL to four straight free throws to lead by three at 16-13, and held an 18-16 lead after a layup from Jonathan Griffin. The Cougars would sprint back, going on a 7-2 run to lead 23-20. On the next possession for UMSL, Joey Paul (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) got fouled on a three-point attempt and connected on all three free throws to tie the game at 23-23. The Cougars then got a late field goal and took a 26-24 lead going into halftime.

SIUE got the first bucket of the second half for a quick four-point lead, but four straight points from UMSL game the Rivermen a three-point lead at 33-30 after a jumper from Derrell Minner (New Madrid, Mo./New Madrid County). The Cougars then turned up the defense and held UMSL to just two free throws over the next five minutes, going on a 12-2 run to turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point lead at 42-35 with 12:44 left in the game. The Rivermen chipped away at that lead, and fought back to a tie at 48-48 on a three pointer from Sherome Cole (Sikeston, Mo./Richland) with seven minutes remaining. The game remained tied at 55-55 with just over three minutes left when SIUE took a two-point lead that was short lived as Jonathan Griffin hit a three pointer with 2:37 left to give the lead back to UMSL at 58-57. UMSL would then go scoreless over the next two minutes, as the Cougars hit four free throws, sandwiched around a three pointer to take control of the game and held on for the 67-60 win.

UMSL was led by Jonathan Griffin with a game-high 21 points, including 16 in the second half, and Joey Paul added 12 points in the loss. Griffin pulled down six rebounds and had a team-high five assists. The game featured eight lead changes and a total of 11 ties as the two teams battled back and forth the whole night.

The Rivermen are now 1-5 on the season and 0-3 in the GLVC. UMSL will be in action again on Saturday when they travel to play at Quincy at 7:30 pm.