After a confidence-building 52-49 road win over Dayton on Tuesday, the Saint Louis University women’s basketball team prepares for its biggest challenge of the year on Friday night-the University of Missouri.
The win against Dayton was the Billikens fourth straight victory. The Flyers led throughout the first half, but they could never build a lead of more than six points.
Junior point guard Star Jackson’s hoop with nine minutes left in the half gave the Billikens a 15-14 lead. But Dayton quickly regained the lead and pushed it to 26-20 at halftime.
Despite the deficit, the Billikens clamped down on defense and held the Flyers to 37 percent shooting from the field.
The Billikens defense forced 13 Dayton turnovers and held its leading scorer, Stefanie Miller, to two points on 1 of 5 shooting. Sarah Schloss led the Flyers with eight points off the bench.
SLU shot 33 percent from the field, but capitalized on 50 percent of their shots from behind the arc.
Sophomore forward Angie Lewis led SLU on offense, scoring six points in the opening half. She also led the Billikens on the boards, pulling down six boards.
The Flyers built an eight-point lead shortly after intermission. Then SLU began to chisel away at Dayton’s lead.
SLU went on a 5-0 spurt on a basket from forward Jana Haywood and a three-pointer from junior guard Harmonie King. SLU closed to 39-36 with the spurt.
Lewis converted a three-point play with two minutes left and SLU trailed 45-44. Twenty seconds later, SLU took its first lead, 48-47, since early in the contest when King hit a pair of free throws.
King hit a jumper to stretch SLU’s lead to 50-47 with just more than a minute left. Free throws by Jackson and sophomore guard Kirsti Holloway iced the 52-49 win for the Billikens.
SLU continued its defensive dominance in the second half, holding Dayton to 23 points. The Billikens limited Dayton to 34 percent shooting from the field and forced 21 Flyers’ turnovers. SLU capitalized on the turnovers, converting the miscues into 16 points off turnovers.
The Billikens shot 36 percent from the field and 3 of 10 from three-point range. Lewis recorded her second straight double-double, pouring in 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, four on the offensive end.
She also swatted away three Dayton shots. King also reached double figures in scoring, with 12 points.
With the win, the Billikens improved to 4-2 on the season. Dayton dropped to 1-5.
“We wanted to keep them under 50 points. Everybody stepped up, with some people not playing, like Chris (Shelton),” said junior guard Greta Bujaker, who started her first game of the season against the Flyers. “We played more as a team, with heart and desire, than we have in a while.”
Bujaker drew the assignment of guarding Miller. Bujaker and SLU limited Miller to four points.
“I wanted to go out and not let her score,” Bujaker said. “I wanted to play solid defense on Miller and shut her down.”
The Billikens return home, where they are 3-0 on the year, for a match-up against intrastate rival Mizzou at 7 p.m. Friday night at Bauman-Eberhardt Athletic Center The Billikens lost 73-63 last season in Columbia, Mo.
The Tigers are 5-1 on the year after winning the Unilever Tiger Tournament at the Hearnes Center last weekend. Kerensa Barr leads the Tigers with 19 points a game. Evan Unrau contributes 15.5 points to Mizzou’s offensive effort and pulls in more than eight boards a game.
“We always expect a big game,” Bujaker said. “If we work our game plan, if we use what the coaches give us, it’ll work. If we play with the same desire that we showed against Dayton, we should be OK against Mizzou.”
“Mizzou will definitely be a fun game,” Lewis said. “We need to go out and play hard and execute our game plan. We’ve never beaten them. It’s definitely time for a change.”
