ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Jax State women's basketball team lost Wednesday evening 74-54 at Saint Louis. The Gamecocks were down to seven players for the second consecutive game.
 
Mya Barnes led the Gamecocks against the Billikens with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting and 3-of-7 from three. Barnes tied with Brooklyn McDaniel for a team-best eight rebounds and led the Red-and-White with four assists. McDaniel had 13 points, while Kyera Thornsbury scored 10 points.
 
The Gamecocks shot 20-for-65 from the floor and hit nine threes inside Chaifetz Arena.
 
The first quarter of play was back-and-forth affair. McDaniel knocked down back-to-back threes to make it 11-11 with 5:46 in the quarter. Eden Sample made a fastbreak layup with 30 seconds in the opening 10 minutes of play to help the Gamecocks regain the lead 17-16. Barnes sank a free throw to make it 18-16 Jax State heading to the second quarter.
 
In the second, Saint Louis got off to a 6-0 run forcing a Jax State timeout with 4:42 left in the half. Barnes cut the Billikens lead to 28-25 with a layup out of the timeout. The Billikens scored another six-straight to increase their lead to 34-25. Saint Louis held a 36-28 lead at halftime.
 
In the third quarter, Jax State got within three of Saint Louis early thanks to a McDaniel layup. Consecutive buckets by Saint Louis made it 41-33 with just under seven minutes in the third. McDaniel hit a pair of free throws to make it 44-39, but that was the final score of the quarter for the Gamecocks as Saint Louis went on to take a 51-39 advantage into the fourth.
 
By the media timeout in the fourth, Jax State trailed 61-47 after a Makala Hobdy made three. McDaniel hit a three with just over two minutes left in the game, followed by a Hobdy layup to make it 69-52. Vitoria Carvalho hit a layup late with only two seconds remaining to make it 74-54.
 
Jax State moves on to play at Presbyterian Sunday at 1 p.m. central.
 
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