UMSL’s Darian Cartharn
(St. Louis, MO) – Some Great Lakes Valley Conference teams are getting a jump on the conference schedule. This week Rockhurst visits William Jewell, Missouri S&T heads to national champion Drury, Quincy hosts Truman State for their first ever GLVC game and Missouri St. Louis hosts cross town Maryville.
The GLVC has a new scheduling process where groups of four teams or ‘pods’ play everyone in their pod twice and the other 12 conference foes once. Locally, Maryville, UMSL, Truman State and Quincy form one of the pods.
Saturday’s game at the Mark Twain Building on the UMSL campus is an important one for both visiting Maryville and Head Coach Bob Sunvold’s Tritons. Last year Maryville grabbed an overtime decision as early season visitors to North St. Louis and that one game made a significant difference in the final standings.
In one Saturday contest, newcomer Truman State plays their first ever GLVC contest and in the other Sunvold coaches his first ever GLVC game.
The UMSL/Maryville rivalry is a good one between two teams separated by about 20 minutes of highway driving and the play-by-play announcers (Jim Powers for Maryville and yours truly with UMSL) who both contribute to this site. League standings are one thing, but bragging rights are a completely different story!
UMSL (5-2) is a perfect 4 and 0 at home and the Saints (4-2) are 2 and 1 on the road.
Maryville is led by all-conference nominee Asa Toney (13.8) and Armon Provo (13.3) and is coached by Kevin Carroll who last year, led the team to their most successful season in program history. The Saints amassed 23 wins and were hanging in the Division II national polls much of the season.
Four Tritons average double figures in scoring paced by St. Louis native Aareon Smith (Lafayette H.S.). The 6’4” Junior averages 15 points per game.
Sunvold has coached more than 30 years and eight as a head coach, including a stretch at MIAA institution Central Missouri.
That game can be seen at 3:00 p.m. Saturday at http://www.umsltritons.com/showcase/
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