A potential comeback was cut short Tuesday night as the Saint Louis University women’s basketball team fell to University of Tennessee-Martin. The Bills (2-5) struggled during the first half and were unable to hold a late lead. The score was 71-68.
“Although I was very disappointed in our first-half performance, it’s encouraging to know we have the ability to overcome a big deficit on the road and put ourselves in the position to win,” Coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said.
UT-Martin led the Bills at intermission, 45-34, on the strength of 52.9 percent shooting from the field. The Bills rallied back to within four down the stretch but failed to capitalize with less than a minute to play.
“You can’t just play 20 minutes and expect to win,” Gray-Miller said. “We must play the whole game, all 40 minutes. We can’t lose focus.”
The Billikens held UT- Martin to just 18 percent shooting in the second half, just one of the defensive accomplishments for Gray-Miller.
SLU committed a season-low 14 turnovers, went 44-41 on the boards and had 10 steals. Sophomore guard Katie Paganelli tied for a team high with three steals. Also, she had a career-best five assists and went 3-of-7 from behind the arc.
“I’m very happy with our second-half performance overall. You know, when we’re on the road, defense will win the game for St. Louis,” Gray-Miller said. “To win, we have to keep our opponents from putting up points.”
Freshman Lauren Woods put up a career-high 20 points Tuesday night, while Paganelli and Amanda Kemezys contributed 23 and 21 points, respectively.
Kemezys led the team with a career-high 13 boards. Hayley Leake registered six assists. SLU has had seven fewer turnovers than its opponents in the last three games. Gray-Miller is “very happy” about the Bills’ play in the second half.
“In every loss thus far, we’ve struggled in the first half,” Gray-Miller said. “But we’ve come out second half and played to our potential. When we play at that level, we’re hard to beat.”
The Bills face a tough road down the stretch. The women play 10 of the next 11 games on the road. Gray-Miller said her goal is to “stay focused. We want to be road warriors at our opponents’ places.”
On Sunday, the women head to Kansas to face the Jayhawks (3-1). The Bills defeated the Jayhawks at home in the 2001-2002 season 73-61 when they last met. SLU is 1-2 against the Jayhawks, losing the other two matches in Lawrence, Kan.
“This game will be exciting for the girls,” Gray-Miller said. “They always enjoy playing Big 12 teams, especially those relatively close to St. Louis.”
The Bills will be without sophomore guard Theresa Lisch, a key to the Bills’ offense and defense, because of a wrist injury.
“Kansas will be all about defense, defense, defense,” Gray-Miller said. “We’re going to need to come out strong and play to win.”
