ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The McKendree University women's basketball team concluded the 2021-22 regular season here Saturday afternoon by suffering an 84-54 loss to 25th-ranked Missouri-St. Louis in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the Mark Twain Building on the UMSL campus.
With the setback, the Bearcats end the regular season with a 3-22 overall record and a 2-16 mark in the GLVC, while UMSL improved to 21-4 overall and 17-3 in the GLVC. Despite the loss, the Bearcats earned the No. 14 seed in this coming week's GLVC Tournament and are expected to face No. 3 seeded UMSL in a first-round tournament game on Monday in St. Louis at 5:30 p.m.
In Saturday's regular season finale, the Bearcats, who ended the regular season losing its final nine games, put three players in double figures with sophomore guard
Christy Fortune (Appleton, Wis./Appleton West) leading the way with 18 points, including going 7-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 from the 3-point line. In addition to Fortune, second year sophomore guard
Clare Breden (Jerseyville, Ill./Jerseyville Community) added 11 points and five rebounds, while redshirt senior guard
Sydney Diekhoff (Pekin, Ill./Pekin Community) finished with 10 points in the loss.
With her 10 points, Diekhoff took over 10th place on the school's all-time scoring chart with 1,259 career points. She supplanted Katie Hasheider, who was previously 10th in career scoring as she tallied 1,258 points as a Bearcat from 2003-07.
UMSL's win, which was just its second win in its last four games to close the regular season, was keyed by strong shooting as they shot 53 percent from the field and 48 percent from the 3-point line (14-for-29) and held a 31-18 edge on the boards, including collecting nine offensive rebounds that led to 15 second chance points.
The Tritons shot 57 percent from the field and 53 percent from the 3-point line in pushing out a 46-30 lead at the half, including outscoring the Bearcats, 26-8 in the first quarter. In fact, UMSL scored 20 or more points in each of the first three quarters.
Mallory Ronshausen paced four Tritons in double figures with 18 points, while Kiara Stewart added 14 points and six rebounds, Alex LaPorta chipped in with 13 points and Jalysa Stokes finished with 10 points in the win.
After the two teams traded baskets to open the game, UMSL would score 11 of the next 13 points to push out to a 14-4 lead just a little over five minutes into the contest. After a lay-up from junior guard
Kaelyn Froebe (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln) stopped the Tritons' run, UMSL would close the first quarter on a 12-2 scoring run to lead 26-8 after the opening 10 minutes of action. In the quarter, UMSL shot 63 percent from the field and 57 percent from the 3-point line.
Fortune would score the first basket of the second quarter on a lay-up just 21 seconds into the quarter, before UMSL used 13-5 run to push its lead to 39-17 following a lay-up by Faye Meissner with 5:23 left in the quarter. The Bearcats, though, would answer with a 10-4 run keyed by six points from Breden to pull within 43-27 with 1:38 left in the quarter.
Meissner would drill a trey with 33 seconds left to push UMSL's lead back to 19 at 46-27, before Fortune drilled a trey on McKendree's next trip down court to drop UMSL's lead to 46-30 at the half.
The Bearcats outscored UMSL 22-20 in the second quarter and would shoot 75 percent from the field and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the 3-point line in the quarter.
McKendree would score eight of the first 13 points in the third quarter to pull within 51-38 following a trey from Fortune. That would be as close as the Bearcats would get as they responded with a 9-2 run to push in front 60-40 with 4:25 left in the quarter. The run began with five points from Ronshausen and was capped by six straight points from Stewart.
Fortune and Breden would score four of the next six points to drop UMSL's lead to 62-45, before the Tritons would outscore the Bearcats, 10-0 to close the quarter and take a 72-45 lead heading into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter featured a total of 21 points scored between the two teams as UMSL outscored the Bearcats, 12-9, in the quarter, including pushing its lead to as much as 32 points at 79-47 following basket by Ronshausen with 7:08 left in the game. Ronshausen's basket gave the Tritons a 79-47 lead.
Fortune would hit her final trey of the game with 6:02 left in the final quarter as McKendree scored seven of the final 12 points to cap the scoring.
For the game, McKendree shot 46 percent from the field and 33 percent (6-for-18) from the 3-point line and was 6-for-7 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line. UMSL was also 6-for-7 from the free throw in the game.
Danielle Berry led the way in rebounding the UMSL with 12 boards, including six offensive boards.
The Bearcats committed just 10 turnovers, but those 10 turnovers led to 14 points for UMSL.
UMSL had 17 assists as Berry and LaPorta combined for nine assists, while McKendree had nine assists with senior guard
Jenna Krause (Seymour, Wis./Seymour) collecting four assists for the Bearcats.
Here is the complete 2022 GLVC Women's Basketball Tournament First Round Schedule:
Monday, Feb. 26
#15 William Jewell (1-24, 0-19 GLVC) at #2 Drury (27-4, 17-3 GLVC)
#14 McKendree (3-22, 2-16 GLVC) at #3 UMSL (21-4, 17-3 GLVC)
#13 Quincy (9-19, 5-16 GLVC) at #4 Truman State (17-10, 13-6 GLVC)
#12 Maryville (13-13, 9-11 GLVC) at #5 Lewis (13-14, 11-8 GLVC)
#11 Missouri S&T (11-15, 8-12 GLVC) at #6 Illinois-Springfield (16-10, 11-9 GLVC)
#10 Lindenwood (11-15, 8-11 GLVC) at #7 Rockhurst (15-11, 11-9 GLVC)
#9 Indianapolis (10-16, 7-11 GLVC) at #8 Southwest Baptist (15-13, 10-10 GLVC)
