UMSL Late Charge Not Enough in Overtime Loss

Griffin Nearly Records Triple Double in Loss

Romeoville, Ill. – After a slow start, the UMSL men's basketball team made a strong charge late to force overtime, but came up short in the extra period in a 91-88 loss at Lewis on Thursday night.

The first half saw a hot-shooting Lewis team jump out to a huge lead in the opening minutes. The Flyers opened the game with an 18-2 run over the first five minutes of the game and never looked back in the first half. Lewis led by as may 19 points in the first half and UMSL got no closer that 12 points as the Flyers took a 50-35 lead going into halftime.

Lewis looked to do the same thing in the second half, leading by as many as 21 points at 65-44 with 13 minutes left in the game. With ten minutes remaining, Lewis still held a big lead at 70-50 when UMSL began an incredible comeback effort. UMSL would score the next eight points to make it 70-58 and cut the deficit to 12 points. It stayed a 12-point lead after Lewis hit a three pointer with five minutes remaining to give the Flyers an 81-69 lead with 5:04 to play.

The next five minutes saw an incredible comeback by the Rivermen, and specifically Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy). The UMSL defense held Lewis to no field goals and just two free throws over the last five minutes, while UMSL scored 14 points to force an overtime. Of those 14 points in the final five minutes for the Rivermen, Griffin scored 12 points, hitting three layups and six free throws without missing a shot, and hit the a layup with less than a minute remaining that tied the game at 83-83 and force overtime.

In the overtime period, UMSL got the first lead on a three pointer by Troy Slaten (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette) but Lewis came right back with a three-point play to tie the game again. The team exchanged a pair of free throws before Lewis would connect on three free throws to take a late lead, and UMSL saw two three-point attempts fail to connect in the 91-88 loss.

Jonathan Griffin narrowly missed a triple double yet again. He led UMSL with a game-high 29 points, shooting 7-of-15 from the feild and 15-of-18 from the free throw line, while pulling down 10 rebounds and dishing out eight assists. Troy Slaten added 14 points and Sherome Cole (Sikeston, Mo./Sikeston) scored 12 points off the bench.

The Rivermen fall to 8-3 on the season and 2-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. UMSL will be on the road again Saturday afternoon when they play at Wisconsin-Parkside at 3 pm.