ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners struggled to keep up with a hot shooting Missouri-St. Louis Triton ball club in its 74-49 loss at the Mark Twain Building on Thursday night. UMSL missed just 13 shots in the contest and shot 67 percent from the field.

The Tritons (8-8, 4-4 GLVC) opened the game hitting their first seven shots racing out to a 23-4 lead nine minutes into the game. S&T (4-12, 0-8 GLVC) was able to get some stops on the defensive end holding UMSL scoreless for nearly four minutes, but were unable to take advantage scoring just three points.

The Tritons countered with another seven points to build its biggest lead of the half at 30-7. The Lady Miners answered with five straight of its own to cut the deficit to less than 20 with 5:21 left in the half. UMSL ended the half scoring 10 of the final 15 points to head into the locker room with a 40-17 lead.

S&T shot only 32 percent (7-for-22) from the field, was 2-of-6 from beyond the arc and made its lone free throw. Jamy Douvier (Sedgwick, Kan./Sunrise Christian Academy) led the Lady Miners in scoring with four points while Linda Pagrode (Jaunolaine, Latvia/Riga 99), Leigh-Ann Kesper (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) and Demetria Snaden (Evansville, Ind./Evansville North) added three points each.

The Tritons shot a blistering 68.2 percent (15-of-22) from the floor and was even better from beyond the arc knocking down five of their seven attempts. They outrebounded S&T 17-6 and forced 11 turnovers turning it into 17 points. Kelly Kunkel led UMSL with 13 points while Alexis Lawrence added nine.

The Tritons picked up where they left off to begin the second half scoring the first four points to extend the lead to 27 less than a minute into the stanza. The Lady Miners played pretty even for a majority of the frame hanging within the 20-point range.

UMSL led by as many as 29 points in the contest after a three-pointer by Kelly Kunkel with 5:25 left in the game. S&T wouldn't get closer than 24 points the rest of the way as the Tritons improved their home record to 7-0.

The Lady Miners shot the ball better in the second half making 10-of-24 shots (42 percent) and was 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. They finished the game shooting 37 percent from the field (17-of-46) but was outrebounded 32-16 and turned the ball over 17 times resulting in 26 points for UMSL. Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) scored all 13 of her points in the second half to lead S&T while Brittany Andersen (Saint John, Ind./Andrean ) dropped in 10 more.

The Tritons finished the game making 26-of-39, were 7-for-12 from beyond the arc and shot 68 percent (15-of-22) at the foul line. Kunkel led four UMSL players in double figures with 20 points. Amber Daly added 12 while Tierra Snow had 11 and Kell McGovern finished with 10.

S&T concludes its four-game road trip on Saturday afternoon against Maryville University beginning at 1 p.m.