ST. LOUIS -- The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team defeated Maryville 57-52 in a back and forth matchup inside Moloney Arena at the Simon Athletic Center on Thursday evening. The Tritons improve to 14-4, 8-3 GLVC while the Saints are now 8-11, 6-5 GLVC.
 
UMSL didn't start scoring until three minutes into the first quarter but held Maryville to just one three-pointer in the same time span, relying on their defense to keep the game close. Katie Hamill's driving layup put UMSL on the board.
 
The Tritons and Saints traded turnovers as the game struggled to build momentum either way. Audrey Martinez-Stewart hit a layup to put the Tritons ahead in the fifth minute.
 
And it would be Martinez-Stewart who continued to find the basket for UMSL throughout the first quarter, making a three-point shot with just over two minutes left in the quarter to regain the lead for the Tritons.
 
In the second quarter, clutch free-throw shooting helped UMSL build its largest lead of the half at 30-22.
 
Hamill converted on both her attempts to start the quarter. Martinez-Stewart, Morgan Ramthun, and Kate Rolfes also score both their attempts to help add to the Tritons total.
 
Points from the field in the middle of the second quarter also helped the Tritons to build a lead. Alex Wolff scored her first points of the game on a midrange jump shot three minutes in.
 
Mara Rieder added a layup of her own to tie the game at 20 with just under four minutes gone in the second quarter.
 
The Tritons headed into the locker room with a 31-26 lead at halftime.
 
The third quarter saw the Saints make a run. With a little over four minutes to go, Maryville made a three-point shot to tie the score at 35 all.
 
Emerson Weller started the momentum change, hitting her layup a minute later to put the Tritons back in the lead. Weller assisted on Rieder's layup 30 seconds later to extend the lead.
 
Hamill made a driving layup with 16 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Tritons a 44-37 lead heading into the final quarter.
 
Hamill started the final quarter off with a driving layup to further extend the UMSL lead.
 
Maryville continued applying pressure pulling to within three points with just over two minutes left in the contest
 
The Tritons responded with a layup from Rieder, Weller added a jump shot of her own and Hamill scored a layup on her own steal to push the lead to ten points for the Tritons with 0:37 left.
 
Maryville made two three-pointers in a row to cut the lead to 56-52 and had a chance to get closer but Martinez-Stewart stole the ball on a Saints inbound pass and made one of her free-throws to make it 57-52 with 0:11 remaining.
 
Hamill lead the Tritons with 19 points, seven rebounds and one steal. Martinez-Stewart had 12 points, two rebounds, and two steals, including the one in the game's final seconds. Ramthun had 13 rebounds and Rieder added 12 more.
 
As a team, the Tritons shot 37 percent (20-for-54) from the floor, were 4-of-17 from the three-point arc and was 13-for-22 at the foul line.
 
Maryville shot 29 percent (19-for-66) from the field was 8-of-24 from the three-point arc and shot 67 percent from the free-throw line. Lindsey Schadewalt led the Saints with 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists. 
 
The Tritons return to Mark Twain next Thursday (Jan. 30) hosting Illinois Springfield at 5:30 p.m. Next Thursday's game will be a Red Out with fans encouraged to wear red for the game.