The Saint Louis Billikens (21-18, 8-9 A-10) defeated the Vermont Catamounts (25-11, 12-4 America East) 57-54 in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) Fab 4 on Wednesday night. This was the first-ever meeting between these, and with the Billikens take a 1-0 lead over the Catamounts in the series history.
Saint Louis started the game off by building up a lead, and they had a 13-11 lead after the first quarter. The Billikens were held scoreless from the 1:39 mark in the first quarter until there was 2:08 left in the second quarter. That let the Catamounts go on an 11-0 run for over 5 minutes in the second quarter. The Billikens went into the half down by seven points, but they did not let that deter them from getting back in the game. “Doesn’t feel like they have hit a lot of threes?” said Coach Rebecca Tillett reflecting on what her and the team talking about at halftime. “Our team was like ‘Yeah it did’ but they [Vermont] hadn’t. So it was our mindset around what was happening [in the first half] as opposed to what was actually happening to us.” Once the first half was behind Saint Louis, they kicked into a second gear and outscored Vermont 24-13 in the third quarter. The Billikens found themselves with a four-point lead going into the fourth quarter and kept the lead for the rest of the game.
The Billikens had two players in double-figure scoring on Wednesday night. Peyton Kennedy led Saint Louis with 23 points, and Brooklyn Gray had 13 points to round out scorers in double digits. Kennedy Calhoun had 8 points, Kyla McMakin had 6 points, Julia Martinez had 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, Marcavia Shavers had 2 points, and Tierra Simon had 1 point, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks to round out all scorers.
Saint Louis will be going to their first-ever WNIT Championship game in program history where they will face the Minnesota Gophers (20-15, 5-13 Big Ten) on Saturday, April 6th at 3pm ET. The game will be at UIC Edwardsville and will be televised on CBS Sports Network. This will be the third all-time meeting between these two teams, and the Gophers have a 2-0 lead over the Billikens.
Featured Image: Domenic Allegra, The Next
Kaily “KG” Godek is a current student at Western New England University (WNE). She has been a supporter of UMass Athletics for over 15 years. Kaily focuses on both UMass Basketball teams and occasionally on the other Women’s Basketball teams in the conference. While writing for A10 Talk, she works in the athletic department at WNE. When she graduates from WNE she wants to go into Sports Broadcasting and Journalism. You can follow Kaily on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kgumass23.
