ST. LOUIS – Jalysa Stokes finished with a game-high 17 points while
Kiara Stewart added 15 points and matched her season-high with 16 rebounds and
Olivia Mezan had a career-high 14 points in the University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team's 65-50 win over Rockhurst on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building.
The Tritons improve to 9-12, 7-8 GLVC while the Hawks fall to 9-13, 4-10 GLVC.
UMSL led by as many as eight points in the opening quarter and took a seven-point lead into the second stanza.
The Tritons began the second frame on a 6-2 run to build its lead to as many as 11 in the half at 24-13 after a jumper from Mezan with 4:11 remaining.
Rockhurst outscored UMSL 9-4 over the remainder of the quarter to cut the deficit to six points at the half.
The Hawks run continued over the first 3:35 of the third quarter as they scored six of the first eight points to close the gap to 30-28 after a layup from Ali Kamies. The Tritons scored 13 of the next 19 points to push its lead back to nine late in the quarter on a layup by
Shae Dillavou.
Rockhurst got two free throws from Allison McFarren at the end of the frame to make it a seven-point contest heading into the final quarter.
Mezan hit a three to begin the final frame to extend the Triton lead to 10 but the Hawks continued to hang around cutting the deficit in half with 4:47 left after a layup from Rebeca Garica.
UMSL put the game away scoring the next 12 points and built its largest lead of the game at 65-48 with 0:16 remaining after Stokes hit 1-of-2 at the foul line. The Triton defense held Rockhurst scoreless for 4:37 until McFarren hit a jumper with 0:09 to play.
UMSL shot 44 percent (22-for-50) from the field in the contest including 5-of-12 from three and shot 67 percent at the foul line. The Tritons won the battle of the boards 44-23.
The Hawks were held to 35 percent (19-for-54) shooting from the floor, were 2-of-13 from three and shot 83 percent at the foul line. Kamies led Rockhurst with 13 points while Keegan Sullivan finished with 12 points.
UMSL begins its final road trip of the season next Thursday as it heads to Rolla to take on Missouri S&T at 5:30 p.m. at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
