ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Prairie Stars once again struggled in the second half as Maryville defeated the University of Illinois Springfield men's basketball team, 76-50, on Sunday evening at Moloney Arena.

Junior Davi Austin (Newark, N.J.) led UIS with 12 points on 5-for-10 shooting. Classmate Jamall Millison (Bolingbrook, Ill.) just missed double figures with nine points and Sammie Elem (Chicago) had seven points.

The Saints led from start to finish in the Prairie Stars second straight defeat in GLVC play to move to 6-4 overall and 0-2 in league action. Maryville improved to 7-4 and 2-0 in the GLVC.

UIS got as close as two during the early goings of the game, but the Saints used a 16-4 run to lead 23-9 at the 12:11 mark. Maryville was able to take an 18-point lead which the Prairie Stars chipped away at to make it 39-31 at the break.

Maryville shot a blistering 53 percent in the opening frame including a 50 percent clip from three-point range. UIS once again struggled from the perimeter as it only hit 3-for-11 from long range. For the first half, UIS went 11-for-28 from the floor.

The second half struggles continued for the Prairie Stars as the visitors only scored one basket, a triple from junior JJ Cravatta (Streator, Ill.), in the opening seven minutes. On Friday, UIS had just five baskets against UMSL in the second stanza and against the Saints, the Prairie Stars had just seven makes. A three-pointer from Austin with five minutes remaining pulled UIS to within 15, but it was as close as the visitors would get for the game.

Both teams had 13 turnovers, but Maryville took advantage with 23 points on the Prairie Stars' miscues. UIS scored just seven points off of the Saints errors. Despite the ball control, Illinois Springfield owned a 41-31 edge off the glass with sophomore Wes Koral (Naperville, Ill.) grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds.

For the game, Maryville hit 30-of-54 from the floor for a 55 percent clip. UIS shot just 30 percent (18-59) from the floor and 24 percent (6-25) from long range.

Evan Booker led all scorers with 14 points, while Max Mischkulnig and Trae Pemberton had 13 and 10 points, respectively.

The Prairie Stars return to the friendly confines of TRAC on Thursday for a contest against Quincy. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.