ST. LOUIS, Mo.— The Missouri-St. Louis Tritons stifled fourth-ranked Drury for a 75-65 win on Friday in St. Louis.
The Lady Panthers slipped to 21-3 and 11-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. UMSL improved to 15-2 and 11-1 in the league.
Drury raced to a 14-2 lead in the game’s first five minutes, but the Tritons cut the DU lead five at the end of the first quarter, then grabbed a 35-33 lead at halftime.
UMSL’s defense then put their clamps on Drury and built a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter. The Lady Panthers rallied and a three-pointer by Payton Richards pulled Drury within one, 54-53, with 4:52 remaining. The Tritons answered with a three by Faye Meissner on the next possession, though, and Drury never got as close again.
“Our start was so good because our defense was so good,” said Drury head coach Amy Eagan. “We were pressuring and scoring in transition. We stopped doing that, and then when Alana (Findley) got in foul trouble, that hurt us and (UMSL) scored a lot in the second quarter with her out. We had a tough time scoring tonight. Their defense is really good. We took some good shots, but we had shots that wouldn’t fall. It wasn’t our night.”
The Tritons lead the GLVC in points allowed, giving up just 51.1 points per game, the best mark in the league by more than 10 points. They held Drury to a point total that matched their lowest of the season (65) and Missouri-St. Louis outrebounded the Lady Panthers 25-14. The Tritons shot 57 percent from the field, hitting 25 of 44 shots and they went 20 for 22 at the free-throw line.
Findley led Drury with 16 points, all of them coming in the second half.
Meissner and Kirara Stewart both had 19 points to lead UMSL, while Stewart added nine rebounds.
The Lady Panthers play at Lindenwood on Saturday with tipoff at 1 pm in St. Charles, Missouri.
