15th-Ranked Southern Indiana too Much for Rivermen

Green Scores 26 Points, Griffin Scores 20 Points in UMSL Loss

Evansville, Ind. – The UMSL men’s basketball team had two players reach 20-plus points as Aaron Green (St. Louis, Mo./Riverview Gardens) scored 26 points and Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) scored 20, but it was not enough as UMSL fell to 15-ranked Southern Indiana 83-63 on Wednesday night.

UMSL had the early lead in the first half, despite giving up the first bucket of the game to Southern Indiana. The Rivermen scored nine straight points after the initial basket by the Screaming Eagles, started by a three pointer from Jonathan Griffin who had five points during that run as UMSL led 9-2 in the opening four minutes of action. UMSL held that seven-point lead after three pointer from Chris Mroz (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick) made it a 12-5 game, but USI rebounded and 14 of the next 16 points over a four-minute stretch and took a 19-14 lead. The Rivermen cut it down to a three-point deficit after a dunk by Aaron Green made it a 19-16 USI lead, but the Screaming Eagles took off from there to score eight straight points. Southern Indiana then pushed their lead out to 16 points by halftime, leading 42-26 at the break.

The Rivermen got the first basket of the second half on a jumper by Derrell Minner (New Madrid, Mo./New Madrid Central), but USI got a three pointer to increase their lead to 17 points. Aaron Green then put the Rivermen on his back and tried to get the team back in the game, scoring eight straight UMSL points, including two three pointers, and cut the deficit down to 11 points at 49-38 with 15:22 remaining. That would be as close as the Rivermen would get the rest of the way, as Southern Indiana would lead by as many as 23 points late in the game and won by the 83-63 final score.

UMSL got nearly three-fourths of their points from two players as Aaron Green scored a game-high 26 points on the night, including four three pointers, and Jonathan Griffin added 20 points and a game-high eight rebounds for UMSL in the loss. Southern Indiana had a balanced scoring attack as five players scored in double figures for the Screaming Eagles.

The Rivermen fell to 2-6 with the loss and dropped to 1-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. UMSL will take an 11-day break before playing again at Kentucky Wesleyan on December 20.