Warrensburg, Mo. – The No. 25 University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team dropped its season opener at No. 14 Central Missouri 52-38 on Monday evening at the Jerry M. Hughes Athletic Center in Warrensburg, Mo. The Tritons are 0-1 while the Jennies improve to 3-1.
UCM started the game hitting seven of its first 10 shots including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc to jump out to a 20-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.
The Jens scored the first seven points of the second quarter to take its largest lead of the half at 27-9 after a layup from Taylor Weishaar with 6:13 remaining in the quarter. UMSL finished the half strong outscoring UCM 14-2 the rest of the frame to cut the deficit to six at the half.
Raya Shaw and
Jayden Kuper led the Tritons with six points each in the first 20 minutes.
The Jens outscored UMSL 10-0 to extend its lead back to double digits by the end of the stanza. The Tritons were 0-of-11 from the floor in the quarter including 0-of-3 from three.
UCM extended its lead to as many as 20 with 3:16 to go but UMSL finished the game on an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to 14 points at the end.
Mara Rieder and
Emerson Weller led the way for the Tritons with eight points apiece while
Jaeda Wilson added seven and Shaw and Kuper had six apiece.
UMSL was held to 30 percent (16-for-54) from the field in the contest including 2-of-14 from three and shot 67 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded the Jens 42-to-32 but turned the ball over 14 times resulting in a 13-2 points off turnovers advantage for UCM.
The Jennies finished the game shooting 39 percent (21-for-54) from the floor, were 5-of-17 from three and shot 71 percent at the foul line. Hayden Heim led UCM with 13 points while Weishaar and Jayla Griffith added 10 points each.
The Tritons host Roosevelt in its home opener this Friday (Nov. 13) at 1 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.
