ST. LOUIS, MO. - Junior Kelly Kunkel scored a game-high 20 points as the University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team recorded a 66-61 victory over No. 9 seed Bellarmine in first round action of the 2015 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on Sunday afternoon.
 
The victory puts the Tritons into the tournament quarterfinals on Friday where they will face No. 3 seed Southern Indiana at 8:30 p.m. at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo. UMSL, which was the No. 8 seed in today's game, becomes the No. 6 seed after losses by No. 6 seed Truman State and No. 7 seed William Jewell in other first round games.
 
The Tritons also improve to 14-13 overall, while Bellarmine ends its season at 14-13.
 
Senior Kelly McGovern scored four of her eight points in the final 34 seconds to help the Tritons to the win, including two free throws with two seconds on the clock to seal the victory. Her layup with 34 seconds to play put the Tritons ahead 62-59 and after the Knights countered on the ensuing possession, junior Amber Daly hit both free throws in a one-and-one situation for the three-point advantage with 18 seconds on the clock. Bellarmine then turned the ball over on its end of the floor with Daly picking up the steal before McGovern was fouled.
 
UMSL broke a 27-27 halftime tie with a 12-6 scoring advantage in the first 4:24 of the second half to take a 39-33 lead, but the Knights rallied back to knot the score at 41-41 with 13:11 to play. The Tritons later posted a 54-49 lead with 6:19 to play and owned a 58-52 advantage with 3:04 on the clock before a 7-3 spurt by Bellarmine trimmed the lead to 60-59 with 54 seconds to play.
 
UMSL shot an even 50 percent from the field, including 60.9 percent in the second half, while Bellarmine connected at a 43.3 percent clip, including 52 percent in the final 20 minutes. The Knights owned a 36-23 rebounding advantage, including a 14-6 edge on the offensive end.
 
Senior Alexis Lawrence added 13 points, while senior Tierra Snow finished with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go with a team-best three steals. Daly chipped in eight points and dished out five assists, while McGovern tallied five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
 
UMSL jumped out to an early 13-6 lead, but Bellarmine answered with an 11-0 run, posting a 17-13 advantage with 9:29 to play. The Tritons went nearly six minutes without scoring during that stretch before Snow ended the drought at the 7:24 mark to start a 9-4 run capped by a pair of Logan Sims free throws to swung the lead back in the Tritons' favor at 22-21 with just under five minutes on the clock.
 
TRITON TIDBITS: UMSL improves to 5-9 all-time in GLVC Tournament games and won a first round game at home for the second straight year… the Tritons improve to 10-20 all-time against Bellarmine, but has won four straight, including an 80-59 decision earlier this season in St. Louis… the Tritons and Knights were meeting in the GLVC Tournament for just the second time with Bellarmine taking a 64-62 victory in the 1999 semifinals… senior Alexis Lawrence's 13 points moves her career total to 994... head coach Katie Vaughn recorded her 50th career victory at UMSL in three seasons.