The Lindenwood women's basketball team defeated Missouri-St. Louis 68-67 on Tuesday night in St. Louis, Mo.
 
The Lady Lions fell behind 6-0 to start the game and scored their first bucket on a Vanessa Zailo layup with 5:05 remaining in the first quarter.  That sparked a quiet offense that warmed up to a 7-0 run and finished the first quarter tied at 14-14.  Missouri-St. Louis scored the first bucket of the second quarter, but Kassidy Gengenbacher drained a three-pointer to give the Lady Lions the lead.
 
CeCe Rapp scored back-to-back layups to extend the Lindenwood lead to 21-16.  The Lady Lions lead fell to just one, but another Rapp bucket put Lindenwood in front 33-30 and the half would end with a slim three-point lead.
 
Out of the break, the Tritons jumped on the board first, but Rapp continued to be a force in the paint with yet another layup.  The Lady Lions extended their lead to ten with the help of a Kylie Ferguson three-pointer and points in the paint by Zailo and Gengenbacher.  Missouri-St. Louis battled all the way back to tie the game at 44-44 after a 10-0 run.  The Tritons held a two-point lead before Gengenbacher made a smooth pass to Rapp for the jumper to tie the game at 48-48 heading into the final quarter of play.
 
A back-and-forth quarter started to move the Tritons way as they held a five point lead with just under five minutes to go.  Bri Wilber scored a key bucket with 2:34 to pull within three and a Ferguson layup with less than two minutes made it a one-point game.  Charisse Williams made a key free throw to tie the game at 63-63.  After a Tritons bucket, Gengenbacher got fouled down low to send her to the free throw line.  The junior was clutch and again tied the game at 65-65.
 
In the same situation, Gengenbacher was sent to the line with the Lady Lions down two points with 23 second left.  Gengenbacher nailed both free throws to knot the game up at 67-67.  Zailo came up with a big steal as time was winding down and dished it up the court to Williams who was fouled going up for a score.  Williams missed the first free throw, but the second one was good the give the Lady Lions a 68-67 lead with 3.7 second remaining.
 
The Lady Lions defense stood strong and held on for the 68-67 victory over Missouri-St. Louis.  Gengenbacher scored her 1,000th career point on her 13th point of the night as she finished with 18 points and four rebounds, while Wilber put up 17 points and three assists.  Lindenwood shot 46.3 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Tritons 31-28.  Head Coach Tony Francis was more than pleased with the victory over Missouri-St. Louis.

"At this point in the season, you never complain about any type of win, no matter how ugly it is," Francis said.  "We had many dificult situtations that we faced, but we showed how tough we are and we perservered."

Lindenwood improves to 2-1 on the year.  The Lady Lions will travel to Quincy, Ill. to play in the Quincy Classic with their first game against Robert Morris-Springfield on Saturday at 3 p.m.