ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The seventh-ranked University of Southern Indiana men's basketball team reached the 20-win plateau for the 19th time in 21 seasons after defeating the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 79-50, Sunday afternoon in St. Louis, Missouri. USI, which has won four in a row, raises its record to 20-2 overall and 12-2 in the GLVC, while UMSL falls to 14-8, 8-6 GLVC.
The 20-wins also mark the first step toward a berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament. Only twice in the last 21 years has USI won 20-or-more games and not received an invitation to the NCAA post-season tournament.
With four games remaining in the GLVC and regular season schedule, the Screaming Eagles stay two-games back of second-ranked and East Division front-running Bellarmine University and a game-ahead of 24th-ranked and third place Northern Kentucky University.
The Eagles soared out to a 7-0 lead to start the game and led from start to finish. They led by as many as 11 points twice during the first 20 minutes before going into the locker room with a nine-point advantage at the intermission, 35-26.
USI quickly doubled the margin in the first 10 minutes after halftime and went on to lead by as many as 33 points twice in the final minutes.
Individually, senior guard #C.J. Trotter# (Hopkinsville,Kentucky) led the Eagles with a game-high 26 points. Trotter hit 10-of-17 from the field, including a trio of three-point field goals, and was perfect on three trips to the charity stripe.
Junior forward
Isaac McClure (Paducah, Kentucky) followed Trotter in the scoring column with 13 points. McClure was 2-of-3 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line.
As a team, USI outrebounded UMSL, 39-22, and held the Tritons to just 39.1 percent from the field (18-46).
The Eagles hit the halfway point of the five-game road swing Thursday at 6:45 p.m. (CST) when they travel to play 22nd-ranked Greyhounds of the University of Indianapolis. The USI-UIndy match-up also starts a series of four games against the GLVC East Division teams to close out the regular season.
