ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team held off a fourth quarter rally to defeat crosstown rival Maryville 75-65 for its eighth straight win on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 15-2, 11-0 GLVC while the Saints drop to 15-5, 9-3 GLVC.

UMSL jumped out to an 11-2 thanks great free throw shooting as Morgan Ramthun was 6-for-6 at the charity stripe while Mara Rieder hit 1 of her two attempts. The Triton defense held Maryville to just one field goal for the first 7:30 minutes of the quarter.

The Saints cut UMSL's lead to five after a jumper from Helen Ben but three pointers from Anna Costa Riera and Lexi Hanna sparked an 8-2 with back-to-back threes to give the Tritons their biggest lead of the quarter at 19-8. Maryville cut the lead to eight at the end of the quarter on a three from Lindsey Schadewalt.

The Saints carried that momentum into the second quarter opening on a 12-6 run to cut UMSL's lead to 24-23 after a layup from Annika Pluemer. The Tritons countered with an 11-4 run highlighted by three points from Jaeda Wilson. UMSL scored eight of the final 13 points of the frame to take a 43-32 lead into halftime.

The Tritons opened the third quarter on an 11-3 run to build its largest lead of the afternoon at 54-35 on a three-pointer from Hanna. Maryville cut into the lead thanks to a 15-0 run behind eight points from Claire Lueken while Gracie Gopalan added four more.

UMSL got a field goal from Rieder and a free throw from Wilson to take a five-point lead into the final quarter.

The Saints wouldn't go without a fight cutting the Triton lead to 63-61 with 4:30 to play but that would be the closest they got as Ramthun hit a layup and Wilson hit a three with three minutes left to make it an eight-point margin.

UMSL sealed the victory with Wilson's free throw with a minute to go.

The Tritons finished the game shooting 48 percent (25-for-52) from the field including a season-high threes and shot 76 percent at the foul line. They outrebounded Maryville 41-to-25 in the contest and had 16 assists on 25 field goals.

Hanna led five UMSL players in double figures with a career-high 18 points with four threes. Ramthun had 14 points while Wilson and Jayden Kuper had 12 points each and Rieder finished with 10. Kuper added 10 rebounds and a career-high eight assists.

The Saints shot 42 percent (25-for-60) from the field including 5-of-15 from three but shot 67 percent at the foul line. Schadewalt led Maryville with 18 points while Lueken had 16 and Pluemer finished with 11.

UMSL heads back out on the road on Thursday (Jan. 29) as it heads across the river to take on McKendree at 5:30 p.m. at the Melvin Price Convocation Center.