With the end of the basketball season less than two weeks away, eight of the 12 teams for the Great Lakes Valley Conference playoffs have already clinched a spot. The women’s basketball team at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is still trying to clinch their own playoff spot and took to the road for the first two games of a four-game road trip.
On Thursday night, the Tritons took on Southern Indiana, who was trying to end a three-game losing streak with a 15-6 overall record and a 5-4 conference record.
The Tritons would take an early 13-5 lead after a Kelly Mitchell, junior, communications, had a successful three-pointer with a little under 14 minutes left to play, but Southern Indiana would retake the lead going into halftime by the score of 34-30.
In the second half, the game would be tied up nine times and have 10 other lead changes. After a hard fought game by both teams, with the lead going back and forth, the Tritons would lose by the score of 75-66.
The real killer for the Tritons was turnovers, of which they had 25. Southern Indiana took advantage of this and made 30 points off the Tritons’ 25 turnovers. The Tritons only scored eight points off Southern Indiana’s 19 turnovers.
Two days later, the Tritons took on another conference rival, the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers, who entered the game with an 11-11 overall record and a 4-9 conference record.
The Tritons would take an early lead of 10-4 with 16:38 left in the first half, but the Panthers would tie the game at 35-35 going into the second half. In the second half, the Tritons would take the lead at two different times, but both were early in the second half. The Tritons’ last lead of the game was 47-46 with 14:57 left to play. After this point in the game, the Tritons would never tie the score back up.
The Tritons would trail by only two points with 4:40 left after Lindsey Ransome, senior, communications, made back-to-back three-pointers to make the score 68-66. But the Panthers would never let the Tritons get any closer as they would go on to win by the score of 83-74. With the loss, the Tritons’ overall record is 10-13 with a 6-8 conference record.
A few positive notes for the Tritons in this game were they had less turnovers with 14 to the Panthers’ 19, and in steals, UM-St. Louis had nine to Kentucky Wesleyan’s five. The Tritons also fared better in second chance points with 19 to the Panthers’ 13, and in points off the bench, with 29 to 24.
Hailee Deckard, sophomore, secondary education, led the Tritons in scoring in both games last week. She had a game-high 21 points against Southern Indiana, then duplicated the game-high feat with 17 points and seven rebounds against Kentucky Wesleyan.
Despite the two losses, the Tritons are still in an excellent position to make the playoffs. If the Tritons can win their next game, which is Thursday against Rockhurst, they will clinch a spot for the GLVC playoffs.
Rockhurst currently has a 6-16 overall record and a 2-12 conference record. The Tritons already beat Rockhurst earlier in the year at home by the score of 71-51.
Then the Tritons will play their final road game of the season when they travel to Springfield, Mo., to take on Drury, which currently has an overall record of 18-6 and a conference record of 10-3.