UMSL Gobbles Up Central Bible College 85-61

St. Louis, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team cruised to an 85-61 win over Central Bible College on Friday night, in the first day of action at the UMSL Thanksgiving Classic.

UMSL got off to a fast start, scoring the first six points of the game. Central Bible kept it close, trailing by two points at 12-10 when UMSL went on a 20-3 run over the next six minutes. The Rivermen used the transition game to open up their lead, scoring 15 of their first 25 points in the game off the fast break. Brett Ledbetter led the way during that run, scoring eight points to help pace the Rivermen as UMSL went into halftime leading 45-26. In the second half, UMSL pushed their lead to as many as 30 points at 79-49 after a layup by David Ward with 6:36 remaining. From there, UMSL cruised to the win by a score of 85-61.

UMSL was led by Brett Ledbetter with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Troy Slaten scored 16 points and David Ward added 15 points and eight rebounds. Octavious Hawkins narrowly missed out a triple double, recording ten points, a team-high ten rebounds and dished out seven assists. UMSL scored 23 points in transition and scored 29 points off 22 Central Bible turnovers.

The Rivermen are now 2-1 on the season and will be in action again on Saturday when they host 24th-ranked Grand Valley State at 5 pm.