Box Score

ST. LOUIS, MO. – The No. 8 seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball team shot 62.1 percent from the field en route to a 103-79 victory over No. 9 seed Missouri S&T on Sunday afternoon in one of four Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament First Round games.
 
With the win the Tritons improve to 16-11 overall and advance to the tournament quarterfinals at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. UMSL becomes the No. 7 seed with No. 5 seed Truman State's loss to No. 12 Illinois-Springfield today and will play No. 2 seed Wisconsin-Parkside on Friday night at 6 p.m. The Rangers posted an 89-76 win at UMSL on Jan. 9.
 
Missouri S&T ends its season at 12-15.
 
Senior Femi John and junior Tylor Wimbish combined for 57 points in the victory with John tallying a career-best 30 points, including a 10-for-10 performance at the free throw line. Wimbish equaled his career-high of 27 points and also pulled down eight rebounds and blocked two shots.
 
Junior Aareon Smith came off the bench to follow with 16 points, while senior Darian Cartharn chipped in 13 points on three three-pointers.
 
The Tritons took a 50-43 lead into halftime after an opening half that saw 10 lead changes. A string of eight unanswered by Missouri S&T gave the Miners their largest lead of the game at 24-19 with 11:04 to play before UMSL answered with 14 straight to post a 33-24 lead at the 7:22 mark. John had seven points during that stretch, while Wimbish tallied five. Missouri S&T pulled within 42-37 four minutes later before a three-pointer from John put the Tritons on top 49-39 with 1:24 to play.
 
UMSL opened the second half with a 7-0 run to post a 57-43 advantage on a jumper by Wimbish. The Miners pulled within 60-54 on a three-pointer from Bryce Foster with 13:33 to play. The Tritons put the lead back into double figures before two free throws from Nusrath Khan made it 69-60 with 9:37 remaining. UMSL then used an 11-1 run over the next three minutes to stretch its advantage to 83-61 en route to the win. The Tritons outscored Missouri S&T, 53-36, in the final 20 minutes.
 
UMSL owned a 35-32 rebounding advantage, while limiting Missouri S&T to 39.5 percent shooting.
 
Junior Neil Branham dished out six assists, while John added five as UMSL tallied 24 assists on 35 field goals.
 
Foster, the second-best scorer in the GLVC, scored 22 for the Miners, while Nusrath Khan followed with 20.
 
TRITON TIDBITS: UMSL improves to 2-8 in GLVC Tournament games… UMSL leads the all-time series with Missouri S&T, 34-25… the Miners posted an 85-79 victory over UMSL in Rolla on Jan. 25… UMSL has won at least 16 games for the fourth straight year… the Tritons improve to 13-3 at home… either Femi John or Tylor Wimbish have been the leading scorer for UMSL in 17 straight games.