Forced to play catch-up, QU women unable to reel in UMSL in GLVC road loss

ST. LOUIS — Scoring just one field goal in the first six minutes of the second quarter Saturday put the Quincy University women’s basketball team in catch-up mode.

The Hawks just couldn’t ever catch up.

QU’s second-quarter drought enabled Missouri-St. Louis to build a 12-point advantage that, despite being whittled to four at one point in the third quarter, never fully evaporated. The Tritons pushed the lead out to 18 points in the fourth quarter and settled for a 68-60 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory at the Mark Twain Building.

Tied at 15 at the start of the second quarter, the Hawks took an 18-17 lead on Taya Stevenson’s 3-pointer with 8:31 to go in the half. The Tritons proceeded to score 12 consecutive points before Karsyn Stratton scored the Hawks’ next field goal with 3:59 to go.

Quincy (9-14, 8-9 GLVC) went 3 of 4 at the free-throw line during that 4 ½-minute stretch, but it missed three field goal attempts and turned the ball over once. Meanwhile, UMSL went 5 of 10 from the field in the same stretch with three offensive rebounds and four second-chance points.

The Tritons outrebounded the Hawks 36-25 overall.

UMSL’s lead ballooned to 15 points three minutes into the third quarter, but Quincy answered with an 11-0 run to get within 43-39. Five different Hawks scored during that stretch.

However, the Tritons’ Martinez-Stewart ended the run with a 3-pointer and the advantage was back to 10 by the end of the third quarter.

Chomp Danso led the Hawks with 20 points, going 5 of 8 from the field and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line. The rest of the team shot 34.8 percent from the field. Danso also grabbed nine rebounds.