Junior forward Marty Jackson has averaged a team-best 13.2 points and pulled down 4.7 rebounds per game in his first season with the Tritons after transferring from North Central Missouri College. He’s helped UMSL to a 9-2 record after a six-game winning streak. (Photo courtesy of UMSL Athletics)
The University of Missouri–St. Louis men’s basketball team has won six straight, including a 78-72 victory last week at Quincy, to improve to 9-2 on the season.
The Tritons currently reside in second place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Central Division standings, trailing Truman State by one game, as they try to defend last year’s GLVC regular-season title.
Truman State handed UMSL the first of its two losses in this season’s second game on Dec. 5. The Tritons would have had a chance to make amends on Saturday in Kirksville, Missouri, but the game was postponed.
Coach Bob Sundvold’s team will look to continue its winning streak on Tuesday when it takes on Maryville on the road, where UMSL is 4-0 this season. The Maryville game is the first of 10 remaining on the regular-season schedule.
The Tritons have four players averaging in double figures this season, led by newcomer Marty Jackson, a 6-foot-6 forward from Kansas City averaging 13.2 points per game.
Senior guards Yaakema Rose Jr., Jose Grubbs and Shane Wissink are averaging 11.4, 11.1 and 10.5 points, respectively, and guard Steve Webb, the reigning GLVC Defensive Player of the Year, is averaging a team-best 5.2 rebounds and has 22 steals.
Sundvold picked up career victory No. 250 earlier this month in a 69-64 victory at Lewis.
Women’s basketball
UMSL has won four of its last five games, including a 70-49 victory on Saturday at Quincy, to improve to 8-4 this season.
Senior Alex LaPorta and junior Kiara Stewart both had double-doubles to lead the way in that game and have been the Tritons top performers throughout the season. LaPorta, who recorded her 1,000 career point earlier this month, is averaging a team-high 18.4 points to go with 8.6 rebounds. Stewart paces the team with 9.1 rebounds per game and averages 13.6 points.
UMSL has gotten a boost lately from sophomore forward Breanna Diestelkamp, who was named U.S. Basketball Writers Association Division II national player of the weeks last week after averaging 29 points and 11 rebounds in victories over Southwest Baptist and Illinois Springfield – the first two games she started this season.
The Tritons are second behind Truman State in the GLVC Central Division standings and will take on Maryville on the road on Tuesday night.
