Box Score

ST. LOUIS, MO. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team won its 20^th game of the season with a 58-51 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory at Maryville Thursday night in the regular season finale.
 
With the win, the Tritons secure the No. 5 seed in the GLVC Tournament and will host a first round game on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the No. 12 seed Rockhurst.
 
UMSL improves to 20-6 overall, notching just its second-ever 20-win season and its first since the 1980-81 campaign. The Tritons also wrap up GLVC play with a 13-5 record, finishing third in the West Division and tying for fourth overall with Indianapolis. The Greyhounds got the No. 4 seed and a first round bye based on their win at Drury earlier this season.
 
Seniors Hazaria Washington and Devonna Smith each recorded a double-double to pace the Tritons. Washington tallied her sixth of the season with a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Smith followed with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her 10^th double-double of the year and the 27^th in her career.
 
UMSL overcame 19 turnovers to garner the win, while shooting 38.9 percent from the field. Maryville (17-11, 10-8 GLVC) shot just 30.9 percent, including 29 percent in the first half.
 
The Tritons took their first double digit lead of the game (32-21) on a Smith layup one minute and 50 seconds into the second half. From there, however, Maryville reeled off 11 straight and tied the game at 32-32 just under the 15 minute mark, hitting 6-of-8 field goals during that stretch. The Saints later took their only lead of the game at 41-40 with 8:19 to play, before UMSL followed with eight straight to ignite a 16-5 run over the next seven minutes with two Jessica Zavoral free throws at the 1:11 mark making it 56-46.
 
The Tritons owned a 42-39 rebounding advantage and outscored the Saints, 17-10, on second chance points, despite a 14-13 edge by the Saints on the offensive end.
 
Senior Alyssa Like collected four of UMSL's 10 steals, while junior Alexis Lawrence dished out five assists.
 
Washington scored the game's first six points before a three-pointer from Like gave the Tritons an early 9-2 lead. UMSL then went cold, missing six straight and committing three turnovers, as Maryville scored seven unanswered to knot it at 9-9 six minutes into the game. After four points from junior Tierra Snow later put UMSL back on top 18-12, six straight from the Saints tied it up again at 18-18 with 4:03 remaining in the half. The Tritons then outscored Maryville, 10-2, to end the half and take a 28-20 lead into halftime.
 
TRITON TIDBITS: UMSL improves to 9-6 all-time against Maryville and completes the season sweep, having defeated the Saints, 69-35, in the GLVC opener on Dec. 7… UMSL's 13 GLVC wins are a program-best since the 1999-2000 team won 14… the Tritons won a regular season finale for the first time since the 2009-10 season… senior Devonna Smith recorded her 700^th career rebound, moving her career total to 706… Smith also moved into the single season top 10 for the third straight year in rebounds and has 227 on the season.