A free throw with 1.1 second to go in the game by Lindenwood's Jenny Rocha propelled the Lady Lions to a 79-78 win over the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons on Saturday afternoon in St. Charles.
 
Things started a little slow for the Lady Lions with three missed shots to start the game. Unfortunately, for Lindenwood it was the opposite for the Tritons who made their first two shots to take a 4-0 lead.
 
The Lady Lions offense would settle down and make its next three shots and take its first lead of the game. Over the next 10 minutes of play, the two teams would trade the lead back-and-forth four times.
 
Then with four minutes to play, Lindenwood went on a quick 6-0 run to take a seven-point lead into the locker room.
 
After the break, the Lady Lions offense continued the momentum it gained at the end of the first half. Lindenwood would push its lead up to as many as 12. But the visitors did not give up.
 
After Bre Zanders hit a jump shot for the Lady Lions to go up by 12 with 8:58, the Tritons decided to make a run. UMSL would go on a 12-2 run to get within two with just over five minutes to play.
 
Lindenwood did answer and pushed its lead back up to eight with 1:29 to go. From that point it looked like the Lady Lions will cruise to the victory but that was not the case.
 
The Tritons run started with a layup and a foul then followed that up with a three-pointer to get within two. Gengenbacher would then hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to four with 32 seconds to go.
 
The Tritons followed that up with a layup to get within two then fouled Gengenbacher once again. The sophomore from Quincy, Ill. would only connect on one –of-two free throws to keep the contest a one-possession game.
 
With just seven seconds to play Hayley Alexander hit a long three to tie the score up at 78. Coach Francis would call a timeout to set up the final play of the game. Francis called on the junior Rocha to take the last shot.
 
Rocha received the inbounds and raced down the sideline and was fouled with just 1.1 seconds to play in the game. Rocha calmly made the first but missed the second but there wasn't enough time for the Tritons to get a shot off.
 
Gengenbacher dominated again scoring 30 points while also dishing out four assists. Rocha was second on the team with 16 points and five assists. Zanders came off the bench to score 10 points and Vanessa Zailo grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds.
The Lady Lions shot 45 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc. Lindenwood dominated the glass outrebounding the Tritons 37-28.
 
With the win the Lady Lions improve to 6-2 overall. Lindenwood will be back in action on Thursday night against Nebraska-Kearney at the Hyland Arena.