SPRINGFIELD, Mo.  – The No. 20 University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team dropped its regular season finale at Drury, 93-80 on Thursday evening at the O'Reilly Family Event Center in Springfield, Mo. The Tritons fall to 22-4, 18-2 GLVC while the Panthers improve to 20-6, 17-2 GLVC.

It was a back-and-forth affair to start the first quarter with Morgan Ramthun scoring a layup that Drury answered before Lexi Hanna answered Drury's three-pointer. Back-to-back layups by Ramthun and Anna Costa Riera gave the Tritons a four-point lead before the Lady Panthers tied it up with five minutes to go.

Ramthun and Costa Riera kept UMSL in the game, combining for 15 of the Tritons 20 points in the quarter. In the final seconds of the quarter, Costa Riera drove to the basket, scoring the layup and earning a free-throw for a three-point play to cut Drury's lead to three.

The Lady Panthers continued to shoot lights out in the second quarter. UMSL kept Drury within reach thanks to rebounding, preventing second chance opportunities on the rare Drury miss.
Mara Rieder scored six points in the final four minutes as UMSL closed in on Drury's lead. An Aliya Tripp three put the Tritons within two points with a Rieder steal and pull up jumper tying the score on the next play.

Drury scored four points in the final thirty seconds to send UMSL into the locker room trailing 47-43.

The third quarter saw the Lady Panthers stretch their lead to 11 points with four minutes to go before Ramthun and Rieder combined to score six-points. Jayden Kuper found the basket to make it a ten-point lead for Drury with 1:38 to go before the Tritons scored the last six points of the quarter.

In the fourth, Drury once again stretched the lead before back-to-back three's from Kuper and Hanna cut the lead to seven points with three minutes to go. Unfortunately, the Lady Panthers continued to find the basket, ending the game 93-80.   

UMSL finished the game shooting 52 percent (33-for-63) from the floor including 4-of-9 from three and shot 77 percent at the foul line. It outrebounded Drury 30-to-24 but was outscored 20-to-6 in points off turnovers.

Ramthun led four Tritons in double figures with a career-high 27 points and recorded her third straight double-double with 11 rebounds. Rieder added 14 points and eight rebounds while Kuper finished with 13 points.

The Lady Panthers finished the game shooting 63 percent (35-for-56) from the field including 5-of-11 from three and shot 86 percent at the foul line. Kaylee King matched Ramthun for the game-high in scoring with 27 points. Sara Mendel added 19 points.

UMSL returns to the court next Thursday (March 5) for the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament at 12 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons opponent will be announced after the conclusion of this Saturday's games.