EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. – Junior Arielle Jackson scored 17 of her game-high 19 points in the first half to help lead the No. 4 seed University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team to a 77-47 victory over No. 5 seed Bellarmine in quarterfinal round action of the 2018 GLVC Tournament on Thursday night.
 
With the win, the Tritons advance to the GLVC Tournament semifinals for just the third time in program history, where they will face top-seeded and No. 3 ranked Drury on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
 
The victory was also the 14^th straight, tying the program record, and made sixth-year head coach Katie Vaughn the career wins leader with her 98^th victory with the Tritons.
 
Defense was key in the victory as UMSL limited the Knights to 19 first half points and 29.1 percent shooting. The Tritons also took advantage of 20 Bellarmine turnovers, scoring 24 points on the other end.
 
Records: No. 4 UMSL (21-5), No. 5 Bellarmine (16-12)
 
How it Happened
The Tritons raced out to a 14-2 start four and a half minutes in and led 29-10 after a quarter. Senior Arielle Jackson scored 12 of her points in the opening frame, including the last nine of the quarter for the Tritons, while UMSL shot 63.2 percent.
 
A three-pointer from senior Sammie Sproul with 39 seconds to play in the half gave UMSL its largest lead of the half at 43-16 before they took a 43-19 lead into halftime.
 
Bellarmine opened second half with a 9-4 spurt to put the deficit under 20 as UMSL made just one of its first five field goals. After scoring just 19 points in the opening half, the Knights hung 23 on the scoreboard in the third quarter, outscoring the Tritons by three to pull within 63-42 heading into the final frame.
 
UMSL scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and never looked back.
 
Numbers of Note
- Senior Jordan Fletcher scored 17 points, moving into fourth place all-time on the career scoring charts with 1,275. She also recorded nine rebounds and added one block to become the program's career leader in that category with 134.
- Senior Sammie Sproul knocked down 5-of-10 three-pointers to tally 15 points and added four steals.
- Senior Shawnta Johnson finished with 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
- Freshman Alex LaPorta pulled down 11 rebounds to go with eight points and three assists. With her 11 rebounds, LaPorta sets a new freshman single season record with 227, bettering the mark of 223 by Denise Simon in 1996-97.
- The Tritons shot 49.2 percent and owned a 38-34 rebounding advantage.
- UMSL recorded 10 steals on 20 Bellarmine turnovers, outscoring the Knights, 24-13, in points off turnovers.
 
Triton Tidbits
UMSL improves to 8-12 in GLVC Tournament games… their previous two semifinal appearances came in 1999 and 2000… the Tritons are 2-0 inside the Vadalabene Center this season, having defeated SIUE 58-55 in an exhibition game to open the season… UMSL also defeated Bellarmine during the regular season, 72-61, in a game played in St. Louis… the 21 wins tie the program's second most and are one shy of the record 22 set in 1980-81.