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February 13, 2008GAME NOTES
THE SETTING: The Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball team returns to action with a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests this weekend that will close out the home portion of the schedule.
The Tritons will spend Valentine’s Day Thursday hosting SIU Edwardsville before entertaining Quincy Saturday.
TRITONS ON VALENTINE’S DAY: UMSL is 4-6 in games played on Valentine’s Day.
THE SERIES: UMSL has faced SIU Edwardsville more times than any other opponent and will meet the Cougars for the 73rd time in series history. It will also be the final time the schools meet as Division II foes since SIUE will transition to a Division I program next year. SIUE leads the series, 43-30, and has won the last 11 meetings.
UMSL and Quincy meet for the 49th time with Quincy leading the series, 31-17. The Hawks have won the last six meetings and 10 of the last 11.
EARLIER THIS SEASON: SIUE topped UMSL, 74-55, in the first meeting this season on Feb. 2 in Edwardsville. The Tritons got a career-high 14 points from Adam Kaatman despite the loss, but the Cougars shot 53.5 percent from the floor en route to the win and jumped out to a 39-22 halftime lead.
Quincy won the first meeting this year, a 70-58 decision, on Jan. 31 in Quincy with Tim Green scoring 12 points and Paul Paradoski adding 10 points for the Tritons.
UMSL trailed by four at 54-50 with 8:19 to play, but Quincy reeled off 10 straight points to secure the win.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: SIUE is 12-9 overall, including 5-8 in the GLVC, which puts them in third place in the West Division standings.
The Cougars have won four of their last five games and are led by T.J. Gray’s 17.8 points per game and 46.6 percent shooting from behind the three-point line.
Quincy enters a Thursday contest at Missouri S&T with a 9-12 recording, including a 3-10 mark in the league. The Hawks are tied with UMSL for fifth place in the West Division standings.
Andre Muse averages a team-best 17.7 points for Quincy, while Cameron Murkey adds 12.9 points per game.
THE OPPOSING COACH: Lennox Forrester is in his first season as head coach at SIUE. Prior to his appointment he was an assistant coach at Bradley.
Marty Bell is in his fifth season at Quincy, where he has produced an 80-60 career mark.
AN UMSL WIN AGAINST SIUE WOULD...:
... improve the Tritons’ record to 9-13 overall and 4-10 in the GLVC.
... improve the Tritons’ home record to 9-4.
... snap an 11-game losing streak to SIUE, including a six-game losing streak at home to SIUE.
... be the Tritons’ first win over SIUE since a 70-66 victory on Feb. 9, 2002, and the first Tritons’ win at home over SIUE since a 74-58 victory on Jan. 10, 2001.
NUMBERS TO KEEP TRACK OF:
• Head coach Chris Pilz is one win shy of recording career win No. 50.
• The Tritons need just three wins to record their 300th victory in the Mark Twain Building.
HOME SWEET HOME: UMSL owns a 297-182 (.620) record in its home facility - the Mark Twain Building. The arena opened in the fall of 1971 and during the 1971-72 season, the Tritons posted a 13-0 record on its new home court.
UMSL is 8-4 at home this season.
WELCOME BACK: Junior Aaron Jackson returned to the court Jan. 31 at Quincy for the first time since an ACL injury this past summer kept his sidelined. He responded by scoring nine points against the Hawks.
TRITON TIDBITS:
• David Ward played in his 100th career game at Quincy Jan. 31.
• Ten different players have started at least one game this season. Paul Paradoski is the only player to have started all 21 games.
• UMSL’s newcomers have made an immediate impact on the offensive end this season, accounting for 70 percent of the Tritons’ scoring. Junior Tim Green averages 11.1 points per game to pace the offense.
• Paul De Chellis leads the team in rebounding, averaging 5.8 rebounds per game, which ranks 9th in the GLVC.
• Paul Paradoski has dished out 88 assists this season (4.19 apg), which ranks fourth in the GLVC. He needs 15 assists to crack into UMSL’s top 10 single season leaders.
• David Ward is in 23rd place among UMSL’s top 50 career scorers. Ward has scored 884 points during his career with the Tritons. He needs 116 points to become the 16th member of the school’s 1,000-point club.
• Paul De Chellis notched his second career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds against Southern Indiana Jan. 3. Ironically, his first double-double also consisted of 12 points and 11 rebounds, coming Jan. 27, 2007 at Missouri S&T.
• Paul De Chellis recorded 14 points against Northern Kentucky Jan. 24 and 12 points against Bellarmine Jan. 26, marking the first time he has had back-to-back double figure scoring games.
• Tim Green and Larricus Brown transferred to UMSL after playing together in high school and in junior college. Green and Brown hail from Memphis, Tenn., where they led Raleigh Egypt High School to a state runner-up finish their senior season. The duo then went on to Itawamba CC and helped that team to an Elite Eight appearance of the NJCAA Tournament last season.
TRITON TRENDS:
• Tim Green is shooting 69.5 percent (16-of-23) from the field in the last four games.
• Paul Paradoski has reached double figures in six of the last seven games.
• Jason Black has connected on 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) shots from the field in the last four games.
• Paul Paradoski has dished out at least two assists each game this season and has 13 games of four or more assists.
• UMSL held Missouri S&T to just 46 points Jan. 12, the lowest for a Triton opponent since UMSL defeated Saint Louis Christian, 108-35, on Nov. 17, 2003.
• UMSL’s bench is outscoring its opponents’ bench, 21.5 to 14.8.
NO. 500!: With its victory over William Woods on Dec. 17, the Tritons won game no. 500 in the men’s basketball program.
HEAD COACH CHRIS PILZ: Chris Pilz is in his fifth season as head coach of the UMSL men’s basketball program where he holds a 49-81 record.
Pilz came to UMSL having built a successful program at Hazelwood Central (Mo.) High School, leading the team to a 107-55 record and never finishing with a losing season. He also spent two years at Senath-Hornersville (Mo.) High School and four years at Salem (Mo.) High School.
A former standout at UMSL, Pilz was a second team All-American during the 1990-91 season and ranks as the school’s third all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,677 points.
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