St. Louis, Mo. - The Missouri S&T women's basketball team concluded its three-game road swing to begin Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a strong defensive effort to knock off Missouri-St. Louis 58-48 Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building.
 
In what turned into a low scoring affair, the Miners (4-5, 2-1 GLVC) scored the first four points on a Kristen Keys (St. Louis, MO/Westminster Christian Academy) 15-foot jump shot and a driving layup by Michaela Davis (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk) before UMSL's Morgan Ramthun responded with five unanswered points on back-to-back field goals to give the Tritons a 5-4 lead. But at the 5:39 mark, Michaela Davis (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk) started a 7-0 S&T run with a three-pointer that held give the Miners a 12-11 advantage heading into the second quarter.
 
The Tritons grabbed the lead as they started the second quarter on a 7-0 run, but the Miners came back to tie on a three-pointer by Laura Rodriguez (Gran Canaria, Spain/Baloncesto Torrelodones) to tie the game at 17-17 at the 6:29 mark. UMSL (2-5, 1-2 GLVC) responded with another 6-0 run  and eventually held a 27-21 advantage after 20 minutes.
 
Coming out of the half, the Miners were able to take control of the contest over the course of the third quarter.  Still down by six, S&T made a run that led to it taking the lead when Davis converted a conventional three-point play to give the Miners a 37-36 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.  S&T warmed up during the quarter as it went six-of-nine from the field and made four of its five attempts from the free-throw line.
 
S&T led by three early in the fourth quarter after UMSL's Shania Liburd hit a jumper with 8:12 to play, but the Miners made another run to pull away.  On back-to-back possessions in the period, S&T was able to run most of the shot clock down and closed the possession with three-pointers, first by Rodriguez and then by Keys, to extend its lead to nine.


Davis led all S&T players with a season-high in points with 17 and went eight-of-11 from the free-throw line. Rodriguez contributed 14 points while shooting two-of-three from behind the arc while making her 150th career three-point basket along the way. The third Miner in double figure scoring was Kristen Keys (St. Louis, MO/Westminster Christian Academy) with 13 points while Alex Kerr (St. Louis, MO/St. Joseph's Academy) added seven points while bringing down a season-high 14 rebounds.  
 
As a team, the Miners shot 42.2 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from behind the arc and 76.2 percent from the free-throw line. S&T was able to get nine points from fast breaks compared to none from UMSL. The Tritons did outrebound the Miners 34-32.
 
Opponent Stats:
The Tritons had two players finish in double figures, led by Morgan Ramthun with 16 points.  Jalsya Stokes, UMSL's leading scorer entering the game, was held to just five points as she was two-of-17 from the field and connected just once from behind the arc. 
 
The Miners return to the hardwood Dec. 10 to continue Great Lakes Valley Conference play, hosting the Prairie Stars of Illinois Springfield at 1 p.m. in Gibson Arena.
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