ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team dropped its season opener to top ranked Grand Valley State 81-55 on Friday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons are 0-1 while the Lakers move to 1-0.
Grand Valley jumped out to an early 14-2 lead as UMSL missed eight of its first nine shots and turned the ball over three times in the first seven and a half minutes of the contest.
Jalysa Stokes snapped the dry spell hitting a three to cut the margin to nine and
Amaya Blake and Shae Dellavou added two points apiece.
The Tritons scored three of the first four points in the second quarter to cut the Laker lead to 20-12 on a three-pointer by
Mallory Ronshausen but Grand Valley ran off 17 of the next 20 points to build their largest lead of the half at 37-14 on a layup from Joslyn Brennan.
UMSL got back-to-back baskets from Blake and Stokes to cut into the lead before the Lakers scored the final four points of the half to take a 41-18 lead into the break.
The Tritons where held to just 29 percent (8-for-29) including 2-of-10 from beyond the arc in the stanza.
Grand Valley shot 64 percent in the first half including 5-of-9 from three and held a 19-12 advantage on the glass. The Lakers forced 12 turnovers which they turned into 12 points and had a 22-8 advantage in points in the paint.
UMSL shot the ball better in the second half making 15-of-28 shots (54 percent) including 4-of-9 from three and hit all three of their free throws. Blake led the Tritons with 11 points in the final 20 minutes to finish with a game-high 17 points. Ronshausen scored eight of her 13 points in the second half, Stokes had nine and
Morgan Ramthun chipped in with seven.
Grand Valley's shooting cooled slightly in the second half as it made only 14-of-25 shots but still shot over 50 percent from the field. It only made two of its seven attempts from three but did shoot 83 percent at the foul line. Ellie Droste had seven second half points while Courtney Sharland and Nicole Kamin finished with five points apiece.
Emily Spitzley led the Lakers with 12 points and was joined in double figures by Brennan and Hannah Kulas with 11 and 10 points respectively.
UMSL is back at home on Saturday as it hosts Davenport at 1 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building. The Panthers dropped their season opener at Maryville on Friday 70-59.
