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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Thoughts of capturing the conference crown ended Saturday for the UIndy women's basketball squad, who fell 80-70 to Maryville in the semifinals of the Deaconess GLVC Championship Tournament Saturday in the Ford Center.

Maryville (20-11) came in shooting just over 33 percent as a team from long range, but exploited the Greyhounds' 2-3 zone to the tune of 13 triples Saturday en route to its third consecutive GLVC Tournament championship game.

The Saints have been the recent darlings of the conference tournament since joining the league, going 4-0 two seasons ago as the six-seed to win the championship and making it to the final game last season before losing to Lewis. All told, Maryville now boasts a 9-1 record since becoming eligible for the tournament in 2011-12.

Maryville seemed destined to continue that success this postseason by dramatically knocking off top-seeded Drury 56-55 Thursday to advance. Trailing by one, senior Samantha Robinson hit a runner in the lane with 2.6 seconds on the clock to lift the Saints to the semis.

The Greyhounds (23-8) have also experienced recent success in the tournament, playing in their third semifinal in four years, but couldn't duplicate their performance in a 73-57 regular season victory over the Saints back on Feb. 6 in St. Louis. In that game, Maryville managed just 3 of 17 from three-point range, with Shelby Miller, Brittany Fish and Jordynn Martin combining to go 0-for-10. Those three combined Saturday to drop 11 of 21 from downtown.

"They wanted to win the ball game more than we did," Coach Constantin Popa told WICR after the game.

"They're doing the same thing every year, they're always ready to play," Popa said of the Saints' postseason excellence. "This is the time of year you need to be ready every game. There are back-to-back games in tournament play and you just can't take breaks."

An early nine-point run gave UIndy a 9-3 lead three minutes into the contest, but the Saints countered with a 13-0 run behind three 3-pointers, officially establishing their offensive attack.

They took their first double-digit lead when Alex Hillyer sank a three to cap a 12-3 run with 3:26 left in the half, making it 36-26, and would lead by the same margin at the break, 41-31.

The three-point barrage continued out of the break, as Maryville took a 47-31 lead behind consecutive triples. UIndy responded, however, sinking back-to-back threes of their own, and the teams combined to hit six in a row from long range out of the break.

UIndy's three triples and a lone free throw were the extent of the offense through the first nine minutes of the half, however, allowing the Saints to begin their separation on the scoreboard, and by the second media timeout MU had a 57-41 lead.

Martin, who scored a career-high 19 points, hit one of her four 3-pointers with eight minutes left to give the Saints a 21-point lead, their largest of the game. The Hounds used a late flurry to chip away at the deficit, but never got closer than the final 10-point margin.

"In the second half we couldn't get any rhythm going," conceded Popa. "We fought to get back in it, but the shots were not falling. We tried to fight at times but we weren't very consistent, and that hurt us."

After allowing 21 offensive rebounds to Missouri-St. Louis in the quarterfinal win Thursday, UIndy struggled to keep Maryville off the offensive glass. The Saints corralled 18 offensive rebounds, resulting in 21 second-chance points.

"Just looking at the stats, it's apparent we're still having the rebounding problem," said Popa, whose team has now been outrebounded in eight of their last 10 games. "We were a little short on bodies because of foul trouble, and those are mistakes that we can't afford to make."

Senior Rose Savela turned in a quality performance from start to finish on both sides of the ball, finishing with a career-high 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting, along with five rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal in 28 minutes of action. She scored 12 of her 16 and all three of her triples in the second half.

The Greyhounds got 13 points and three rebounds from junior Kelly Walter, and 11 points from sophomore Princess German.

Maryville moves on to face the winner of Quincy/Truman tomorrow in the conference championship, while the Hounds await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field Sunday night.  Use this link at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night to view the selection show on NCAA.com.
 

*Notes: The 13 threes for Maryville is a record for an opponent vs. UIndy in the GLVC Tournament, and Fish's five threes is an individual opponent record.