ROLLA, Mo. – It was a tale of two halves for Missouri S&T's women's basketball team Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately for the Miners, it was a strong second half of shooting by Missouri-St. Louis that allowed the visiting Tritons to come away with a 66-57 win at Gibson Arena.
The Miners held UMSL to 23.3 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes of play and took as much as a 15-point lead, but the Tritons went 21-of-31 – 67.7 percent – after the intermission and used a fourth quarter run to break free from S&T to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener for both teams.
Missouri S&T (1-4, 0-1 GLVC) held a 12-10 lead at the end of the opening quarter, then dominated the last five minutes of the first half to take a double-digit lead. After UMSL tied the game a minute into the quarter on a basket by Jalysa Stokes, the Miners rattled off six straight points on baskets by
Chorus Davis (Kansas City, MO/Lincoln College Prep),
Katelynne Roberts (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) and
Jada Lindesmith (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lutheran-St. Charles) to go up by six. With its lead at 18-15, the Miners went on a 12-0 run to take their largest lead of the contest at 15 following a pair of free throws by
Bonnie Lew Ludlow (Indianapolis, IN/Covenant Christian) in the final minute of the period.
UMSL (4-1, 1-0 GLVC) got a basket from Stokes just before the first half buzzer sounded to cut the lead to 13, then scored on five of its first six possessions of the second half to start cutting into the S&T lead. Even with the early surge, the Miners still led 39-32 after a short jumper by Roberts at the 4:42 mark, but UMSL scored the next seven and tied the game at 39 after a jumper in the lane from Amaya Blake.
Blake scored again on a long jumper as the third quarter ended to knot the score at 45 heading into the fourth quarter, then UMSL took its first lead since late in the first quarter on the opening possession of the final period on an Alex Wolff baseline jumper.
The Miners never led in the fourth quarter but were tied with the Tritons on three occasions, the last at 51-all following a basket in the paint by Roberts with 7:13 remaining. UMSL got a basket from Emersen Weller on its next trip down the floor that started an 8-0 run that the Miners were unable to overcome in the final four minutes.
S&T was within four following a foul line jumper by
Norah Gum (Waterloo, IL/Waterloo) with 1:46 to go, but was unable to score after that as the Tritons held off the Miners at the free throw line in the last minute of play.
Roberts recorded her second double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Davis also reached double figures in the scoring column with a career-high 11 points. The 21-point performance by Roberts was her third in succession, which was last done by a Miner when
Alex Kerr (St. Louis, MO/St. Joseph's Academy) had four straight 20-point outings in February of last year.
The Miners shot 42.6 percent for the game, but made only 12-of-29 – 41.4 percent – in the second half and hit only one-of-10 from three-point range.
Stokes had a game-high 24 points to lead the Tritons, who finished the game at 45.9 percent from the field and outrebounded the Miners 41-30. UMSL, however, did not make a three-point shot in six attempts.
The Miners return to action Monday when they take on Indianapolis at UIndy's Nicoson Hall in a 5:30 p.m. (Eastern time) matchup. The Greyhounds won their conference opener Saturday with an 85-71 victory at Upper Iowa.
