Morgan Ramthun finished with 16 points, including the go-ahead basket with 1:04 remaining, in the 25th-ranked Tritons’ 62-59 win at McKendree on Thursday in Lebanon, Illinois. (Photo by Patrick Clark/Athlete’s Eye Photography)
Women’s Basketball
The University of Missouri–St. Louis went 1-1 in back-to-back road games in Illinois after climbing into the Top 25 rankings for the first time this season. The 25th-ranked Tritons rallied for a 62-59 on Thursday evening at McKendree but came up short in a 75-68 loss on Saturday at Illinois Springfield. That defeat snapped a nine-game winning streak and ended a 12-game winning streak to open the Great Lakes Valley Conference season. Thursday’s game included 11 ties and 15 lead changes. UMSL trailed 59-58 heading into the final two minutes, but Morgan Ramthun lifted the Tritons back in front with a layup with 1:04 remaining. She missed an opportunity for a three-point play, but Madison Johnson missed at the other end, and Jayden Kuper sealed the victory with two free throws with 2 seconds remaining. Kuper finished with a game-high 17 points. Ramthun added 16, including the 1,000th point of her college career. Jada Wilson added 11 off the bench. UMSL held McKendree to 36.5% shooting. The Tritons played another back-and-forth game on Saturday, including eight ties and nine lead changes, but the Prairie Stars ended on top after outscoring UMSL 25-17 in the fourth quarter. Illinois Springfield shot 53.3% in the fourth quarter and also went 8 for 11 from the foul line in the final period to hold off the Tritons. Mara Rieder scored a game-high 23 points and also grabbed 18 rebounds in the loss. Ramthun added 17 points, and Wilson and Anna Costa Riera had 11 each. But Coach Katie Vaughn‘s team missed 12 of 14 3-point attempts and went just 6 for 10 from the foul line. UMSL (16-3, 12-1 GLVC) returns home to play Indianapolis on Thursday and Lewis on Saturday.
Men’s Basketball
The Tritons lost a pair of closely contested road games last week, falling to McKendree 82-78 on Thursday and Illinois Springfield 78-74 on Saturday. UMSL hung within single digits against the Bearcats throughout Thursday’s game but never could gain the upper hand in the second half on a night when they shot just 39.3% from the field. Taye Moore scored a game-high 25 points – including going 11 for 11 from the foul line – Jake Hamilton scored 15, and Demetris Phillips finished with 12, but no other Tritons were in double figures. On Saturday afternoon, UMSL outshot the Prairie Stars 46.6%-42.9%, and also connected on 8 of 19 3-pointers, but the Tritons were done in at the foul line, where Illinois Springfield converted 22 of 29 free throws. UMSL, meanwhile, only got to the line 16 times. Miles Boland scored 20 points in the loss. Moore had 19, and Hamilton and Phillips finished with 12 each. The Tritons (12-10, 6-7 GLVC) returns to take on Indianapolis on Thursday and Lewis on Saturday.
Men’s and Women’s Swimming
UMSL’s swimming teams wrapped up their regular season with a dual meet against McKendree on Friday afternoon at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex. The men’s team lost to the seventh-ranked Bearcats 172-91 while UMSL’s 24th-ranked women’s team lost 127-91. The women had four individual event winners. Libby Smith took first in the women’s 1,000-yard freestyle, posting a time of 10 minutes, 56.95 seconds. Justice Beard won the women’s 200-yard freestyle in 1:50.02. Chiara Alberola took the top spot in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:12.91, and Callie Clinton was the winner in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:12.35. On the men’s side, Landon Hanesworth and Gabriel Wells finished 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 57.01 and 57.14 seconds, respectively. Mikael Larsson won the 200 back in 1:52.26, and Adam Campbell took first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:56.53. UMSL will next race in the 2026 GLVC Swimming and Diving Championships, which will be held Feb. 10-14 at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Indiana.
Softball
The Tritons opened their season by going 3-2 at the Lone Star D2 College Classic in Mansfield, Texas. UMSL opened the three-day event by hammering Minnesota Moorhead 13-1 in five innings and the University of Texas at Dallas 11-3 in six innings last Friday. Simia Spahiev led the offensive explosion with a home run and seven RBI while going 3 for 3 in the opener against Minnesota Moorhead. Phoebe Miller homered and drove in at least two runs in each game. Rylie Buchanan, meanwhile, drove in three runs, including an RBI double against UT Dallas. Runs were harder to come by the next two games as the Tritons lost to Central Missouri 3-2 on Saturday and dropped Sunday’s opener 4-1 against Texas Women’s University. UMSL managed only 11 hits total between the two games. The Tritons finished the tournament with a winning record after pulling out a 6-2 win over Northwest Missouri State on Sunday afternoon. May Pasqualini had two hits and drove in three runs in the first three innings to help UMSL build a 6-0 lead. Ashley Borowitz yielded two runs and struck out six while collecting her second win of the season. The Tritons will next play in the DII Battle & Juco Jam on Feb. 13-14 in Branson, Missouri.
