PRESS CONFERENCE

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Saint Louis came up short in Thursday night's exhibition contest against Maryville at Chaifetz Arena, falling 78-70.

The Saints scored the first 14 points in the game to jump out to a lead they would never relinquish.

"You're going to have nights where you really don't shoot the ball well," head coach Rebecca Tillett said. "Shooting the ball 33 percent is tough."

After trailing by as many as 29 points late in the second quarter, the Billikens fought back to pull within eight in the closing seconds of regulation on a layup by Julia Martinez.

"I thought our fight was good," Tillett said. "We definitely made a push there, needed a couple more possessions I think."

Graduate transfer Camree Clegg connected on five 3-pointers, including four in the second half, on her way to a team-best 22 points. She also registered seven rebounds and three assists.

"Once you see one go in, it's a domino effect," Clegg said. "Credit to [my teammates], they just kept on me, kept in my head, saying, 'keep shooting, keep shooting.'"

Senior guard Martinez came off the bench and registered a game-best +21 plus/minus in the contest, scoring 14 points, grabbing nine rebounds, including five on the offensive glass, and dishing out four assists.

"Whatever my team needs, whatever my coach needs, I will give my 100 percent out there," Martinez said. "Obviously we had a slow start in the beginning and that made us dig ourselves in a hole. What we needed right there was energy, and I was just trying my best."

SLU outscored Maryville 47-34 in the second half. Martinez and Clegg combined for 26 second half points.

"We started in the summer, we're here in November, and we've already made a huge jump," Martinez said. "To see how we're going to look in March, we're going to make a huge jump from today."

The Billikens open regular season play Nov. 7 at Indiana State. Tipoff is set for 10 a.m. CT.