Women’s basketball Coach Katie Vaughn picked up her 200th victory at UMSL as the Tritons rallied to beat Indianapolis 66-63 on the road on Saturday. (Photo by Patrick Clark/Athlete’s Eye Photography)
Women’s Basketball
The University of Missouri–St. Louis women’s basketball team rallied in the fourth quarter Saturday at Indianapolis to deliver Coach Katie Vaughn her 200th victory at UMSL. Mara Rieder scored a game-high 20 points off the bench in the Tritons’ 66-63 victory at Nicoson Hall. Alex Wolff had seven of her 11 points in the fourth quarter, including a free throw that snapped a 58-all tie with 3:13 remaining. When Wolff missed her second free throw, Katie Hamill came up with the offensive rebound, and that led to a Kate Rolfes 3-pointer that put UMSL ahead 62-58. They led the rest of the way with Hamill scoring four of her 10 points in the final 2:13 to preserve the victory. Saturday’s victory salvaged a 1-1 road trip for the Tritons, who fell to Lewis on 65-54 on Thursday. Rieder had a team-high 18 points in the loss, and Morgan Ramthun joined her in double figures with 10 points. UMSL (17-5, 11-4 Great Lakes Valley Conference) shot just 30.6% from the field and 21.4% from 3-point range. The Flyers outscored the Tritons 34-24 in the paint. Vaughn’s record now stands at 200-148 in 13 seasons at UMSL. Her team will return home to face Quincy on Thursday and Upper Iowa on Saturday.
Men’s Basketball
The Tritons picked up a pair of road victories last week, beating Lewis 77-66 on Thursday and edging Indianapolis 71-70 on Saturday as they moved into third place in the GLVC’s Point Rating System. Matt Enright scored 24 points, and Savon Wykle finished with a career-high 23 points in the victory over the Flyers. UMSL trailed 33-22 at halftime but shot 70.8% from the field after intermission to erase that deficit and pull away for its sixth road win of the season. Troy Glover II finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double for the Tritons. Glover added a third double-double against the Greyhounds, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday’s win. Wykle and Emanuel Prospere II each scored 16 points, and Enright chipped in 15. UMSL led throughout the second half but saw Indianapolis pull within one point on six occasions. The Greyhounds missed two shots that would’ve lifted them into the lead in the final nine seconds, and Enright secured a rebound with 1 second remaining to preserve the victory. The Tritons (12-10, 10-5 GLVC) will play host to Quincy on Thursday and Upper Iowa on Saturday.
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field
Rashad Smith set a school record in the triple jump while finishing second overall at the Northwest Missouri State Bearcat Invite in Maryville, Missouri. Smith recorded a jump of 46 feet, 4 1/4 inches. Fifth-year senior Benjamin VandenBrink took fourth in the men’s 3,000-meter race with a season-best time of 8 minutes, 26.42 seconds. UMSL also got a sixth-place showing from Caleb Cody-Jackson in the men’s 200-meter race (22.02 seconds) and a seventh-place finish in the men’s 400-meter race in a school-record time of 48.69 seconds. On the women’s side, Kennedy Moore finished 11th in the triple jump with a leap of 34-11, and was 26th in the long jump with a leap of 15-9 3/4. The Tritons also had athletes competing in the Keck Select Invite hosted by Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, Illinois. Sean Keyes ran the men’s 800-meter race in a personal-best time of 2:01.46 to finish in 16th place. Rebekah Vail finsihed 20th in the shot put (34 feet, 2 1/2 inches) and 26th in the weight throw with a mark of 36-1/4. UMSL will compete in Grand Valley State’s Big Meet next Friday and Saturday and at Washburn’s Ichabod Invite also on Friday and Saturday.
Softball
The Tritons went 3-2 over the weekend at the Alvy Early Memorial Classic in Bentonville, Arkansas. Ashley Borowitz shined in the circle for UMSL, going 3-0 with three complete games, two shutouts and 1.33 ERA and 17 strikeouts. Borowitz pitched the Tritons to an 8-0 victory over Arkansas at Monticello in five innings on Friday, a 6-4 win over Washburn on Saturday and a 7-0 win over Missouri Southern State on Sunday. Simia Spahiev hit a pair of grand slams and drove in nine runs on the weekend. UMSL also got two home runs from Rylie Buchanan. Courtney Settles had three hits and drove in a pair of runs against Missouri Southern State. UMSL lost 12-4 on Friday against Northeastern State and fell 18-1 against Harding on Saturday. A scheduled game against Emporia State was canceled on Sunday. The Tritons (4-5) were scheduled to play Northwest Missouri State in a doubleheader this Sunday, but those games have been postponed. The team will next play in the Independence Bank Blue Bridge Battle from Feb. 21-23 in Evansville, Indiana.
Baseball
UMSL was swept over the weekend in a four-game series at Alabama-Huntsville. The Tritons dropped Friday’s doubleheader with scores of 6-5 and 10-4 and lost Saturday’s two games 9-5 and 7-4. Barrett Rose went 7 for 16 in the series to pace the offense. He had five doubles, scored three times and drove in five runs. Ayden Cline and Dane Stevenson both homered in Saturday’s 9-5 loss. Dustin Hagens had the strongest start of the weekend, pitching four innings while surrendering five hits and three earned runs in the 9-5 loss. He struck out five. UMSL (3-4) will next play at Missouri Western on Feb. 18.
