CHICAGO -- The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team fought back with a second half rally to defeat Roosevelt 54-52 in its season opener on Friday afternoon at the Goodman Center in Chicago. The Tritons are 1-0 while the Lakers are 0-1.
Roosevelt shot the ball well in the first 10 minutes hitting 8-of-16 shots to build a 19-11 lead by the end of the quarter.
Jaeda Wilson had four points in the stanza while
Lexi Hanna added three and
Morgan Ramthun and
Jayden Kuper had two points apiece.
UMSL started the second quarter slow, with Roosevelt building to a ten point lead.
Mireia Casas hit two free throws to pull the Tritons to within seven where Roosevelt's lead stayed for most of the quarter.
Anna Costa Riera started UMSL's second half rally with a three point make from a Ramthun pass to cut the lead to four in the fourth quarter. Hanna's jump shot brought the score within two before Wilson made both her free throws to tie the game early in the fourth quarter.
Hanna sunk a three with 1:26 left in the fourth quarter to give the Tritons a four point lead. Marie Outlay made a free throw with just over a minute remaining to cut the UMSL lead to three.
Ramthun made a free throw with fourteen seconds left to push the Triton lead back up to 54-52. As time wound down, Roosevelt missed a three-point shot and a layup that would have tied the game, and the Tritons hung on to win.
Kuper led the Tritons with 12 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Wilson had 11 points and four rebounds with Ramthun recording a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds.
UMSL shot 38 percent (16-for-42) from the floor including 5-of-15 from three and 81 percent at the foul line. It had 10 assists on 16 field goals made and forced 20 turnovers in the victory.
Roosevelt was 20-of-59 (34 percent) from the field, it shot 23 percent from downtown and was only 7-of-16 (44 percent) at the foul line. It outrebounded the Tritons 34-to-29.
UMSL continues its season opening three-game road trip on Saturday traveling to Kenosha, Wis., to take on Parkside at 1 p.m.
