ST. LOUIS - The Lincoln Blue Tigers doubled their scoring output in the second half Tuesday night, but the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons held on for an 80-72 win in the Maryville Thanksgiving Classic.
The Tritons got a 3-pointer from Marty Jackson to begin the game, but the Blue Tigers answered with a steal and a layup by Ni'Sean Rigmaiden, then got a rebound and a layup by Destan Williams to take a 4-3 advantage.
It would be Lincoln's only lead of the game, as Missouri-St. Louis answered with a jumper by Jose Grubbs. The Tritons used a 9-0 run to go ahead 23-13 just past the halfway point of the first half.
Missouri-St. Louis led by as many as 18 points in the first half, until Mark Boland knocked down a 3 in the final seconds to cut Lincoln's halftime deficit to 39-24.
The Tritons continued to hold a double-digit lead until Williams scored a layup to make the score 66-58 with about six minutes to play. Missouri-St. Louis pushed the lead back to as many as 15 points, but the Blue Tigers finished the game on a 12-5 run.
It was a tale of two halves for the Blue Tigers, who shot 32.1 percent (9-of-28) from the floor in the second half but made 18-of-27 attempts (66.7 percent) after halftime.
Lincoln's leading scorers were both bench players. Boland had a team-best 12 points, followed by Derrick Woods with 11 points. Chuck Wilson, Williams and Josh Wallace each added nine points.
Williams also tallied team-highs of nine assists and five rebounds.
Yaakema Rose scored a game-high 17 points for Missouri-St. Louis (4-1).
Lincoln (0-3) will finish the Classic with a 1 p.m. tip-off today against Maryville (4-1), which defeated East-West University of Chicago 100-57 in Tuesday's first game.