ST. LOUIS -- The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team defeated Rockhurst 70-52 on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. With the win, the Tritons move to 11-3, 5-2 GLVC while the Hawks fall to 4-9, 2-5 GLVC.
 
The first quarter started off with a Rockhurst layup before Kate Rolfes answered immediately with a three-point shot. She would hit her second trey of the quarter two minutes later, once again to give the Tritons a one-point lead.
 
Audrey Martinez-Stewart continued the clutch three-point shooting making her first with just under four minutes left in the first quarter. Mara Rieder quickly added a layup to extend the Triton lead to three points. Martinez-Stewart's three-pointer with 3:54 left in the opening frame sparked a 27-7 run for UMSL that spanned into the second quarter.
 
Martinez-Stewart hit a jump shot at the buzzer to end the first quarter to give the Tritons a six-point lead going into the second quarter.
 
It was all defense in the second quarter with UMSL holding the Hawks to five points while the Tritons shot 50 percent from the field and scored 17 points. Rockhurst did not score their first basket until there was 3:15 left on the clock in the stanza.
 
Meanwhile. The Tritons went on a nine-point run with Rieder scoring a layup and a jump shot for four points and Katie Hamill adding a three and a jump shot for five points.
 
UMSL got a steal from Hamill and Alex Wolff hit a jumper on the other end to extend UMSL's lead to 20 on the first possession of the third quarter.
 
Rockhurst scored six straight points before a Rieder layup midway through the third followed by an Emerson Weller layup swayed the momentum back to the Tritons.
 
The Hawks hit two free-throws to end the third quarter, cutting UMSL's lead to 18 heading into the final 10 minutes.
 
Despite trading chances in the fourth quarter, the Tritons never lead the lead slip below 14 points.
 
Morgan Ramthun started a five-point run for UMSL with a layup and made both her free-throws less than a minute later.
 
Most of UMSL's points in the final five minutes came at the foul line. The Tritons earned seven points from the free-throw line and four from the field to close out the game.
 
Rieder led UMSL with 16 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks. Hamill added 12 points, five rebounds, and one steal. Both Ramthun and Weller had six rebounds each with Ramthun scoring seven points and Weller six.
 
The Tritons shot 45.5 percent (25-for-55) from the floor in the contest including 4-of-10 from three and shot 62 percent at the foul line. They outrebound the Hawks 36-32 and outscored them 36-26 in points in the pain.
 
Rockhurst shot 34 percent from the field, was 2-of-15 from three and shot 75 percent at the free-throw line. Keegan Sullivan and Clare Diener finished with 12 points on the afternoon. Sullivan also had 11 rebounds to finish with a double-double.
 
The Tritons return to the court on Thursday (Jan. 16) traveling to Jefferson City to take on GLVC newcomer Lincoln at 5:30 p.m. at Jason Gymnasium.