The Saint Louis University women’s basketball game against the University of Missouri Kansas City Dec. 6 proved to be a battle from 3-point range.
Of the 32 attempts from long range by the Billikens, only seven found the back of the net, however.
Regardless of its inability to execute, SLU defeated the Kangaroos of UMKC 72-59.
Head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said the poor percentage from beyond the arc was due to a lack of discipline on offense.
“The easy thing to do is toss up the three while on the offensive end of the court; the hard thing to do is penetrating, finding the seem and dishing to a teammate,” Gray-Miller said.
The win against UMKC snapped a three-game losing streak, improving the Billiken’s record to 6-3. Leading SLU with 20 points off the bench was freshman Katie Paganelli.
The Billikens led 13-10 in the first half before going on 16-3 run. Senior Rachel Diener sank a shot from beyond the arc to begin the SLU surge, followed by a free-throw shot and jump shot from freshman Maggie Hennegan.
Three-pointers from Senior Tyler McIlwraith and freshman Teresa Lisch also contributed to the SLU lead.
The Kangaroos responded with a 7-0 run of their own, which included two long- range shots from UMKC guard Chazny Morris, eventually cutting the SLU lead to five points.
The last five points of the half came from Paganelli as she notched a 3-pointer and two foul shots to give SLU a 36-26 lead at intermission. Gray-Miller said the main adjustment needed at half was more pressure on the ball.
“What I didn’t like was that we didn’t apply enough ball pressure,” Gray-Miller said. “Because of this, they were able to penetrate and dish the ball to open players, giving them open looks.”
The Kangaroos came out strong to begin the second half with a couple jump shots and free-throws to close the SLU lead to 38-30.
This eight-point margin was the closest UMKC would come to the Billikens in the second half, though.
McIlwraith responded with a 3-pointer, in addition to free-throw shots from Hennegan and a trey from Paganelli, to increase the lead to 45-32 at the 16-minute mark.
In response, UMKC cut the lead to nine, but with a second McIlwraith 3-pointer, the Kangaroos wouldn’t come within more than 11 points of the lead for the rest of the way as the Billikens won their fifth home game of the season.
Teresa Lisch, who had 14 points and five rebounds on the game, said SLU needs to be smarter on defense in upcoming games.
“We had spurts where we would get ahead on offense but we got a little lax on defense and didn’t push the ball as much,” Lisch said.
Although the Billikens only shot 32 percent on the game, compared to the Kangaroo’s 45 percent, they had the advantage in the second half because of their conditioning, according to Gray-Miller.
We out-hustled them [UMKC] in the second half,” Gray-Miller said. “We want to run teams, and we can do that through good defense and pushing the ball on offense.”
The Billikens will face off next against Western Illinois University Dec. 10 in Macomb, Ill.
