ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Lewis' men's basketball team fell to No. 18 Missouri-St. Louis 73-61 on Thursday evening at Chuck Smith Court inside the Mark Twain Building in St. Louis, Mo. The Flyers fall to 13-14, 8-11 GLVC while the Tritons are now 24-5, 15-4 GLVC.

UMSL opened the game on a 21-2 run and never looked back. That lead grew to 25 points on a three-point basket from Shane Wissink with 8:04 left in the opening half. Lewis began chipping away at the lead outscoring the Tritons 18-10 over the final six-plus minutes of the stanza to cut the deficit to 17 points by halftime.

After a slow start, Lewis heated up to finish the half shooting over 45 percent from the floor but was just 2-of-7 from three and shot only 63 percent at the foul line. Brandon McCombs (Jacksonville, Ill./Jacksonville) had nine points in the half to lead the Flyers while Artese Stapleton (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood) added six and Anthony D'Avanzo (Harwood Heights, Ill./Notre Dame) and Austin Boucher (Markle, Ind./Fort Wayne North Side) had five points each.

UMSL shot 53 percent (16-for-30) in the first 20 minutes, was 9-of-17 from three and 5-for-5 at the foul line. Jason Towery and Wissink had 17 and 15 points respectively.

The Tritons opened the second half on a 9-3 run in the first four minutes to extend its lead to 23 points.

Lewis cut the deficit to 10 with less than eight minutes to play but that would be the closest they got as UMSL responded with a 13-3 run to push its lead back to 20 with 2:27 to go.

The Flyers scored the final eight points of the game to cut the final deficit to 12 points.

D'Avanzo scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to lead Lewis while Stapleton finished with a double-double recording 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Flyers shot over 45 percent from the field for the game, was 6-of-18 from three and shot 65 percent at the foul line.

Towery led four Tritons in double figures with 19 points while Wissink finished with 18 points, Jalen Wilkins-McCoy added 12 points and Yaakema Rose Jr. had 10 points. Towery also recorded 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double. UMSL finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field was 12-of-26 from three and shot 85 percent at the foul line. The Tritons turned 16 Lewis turnovers into 25 points.

The Flyers wrap up their season on Saturday against Lindenwood at 3 p.m. at Hyland Arena.