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ST. LOUIS – Bailie Roberts scored a game-high 16 points, but a nine-minute scoring drought put the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team in a hole it could not climb out of in Sunday's 54-45 loss to Saint Louis.

Roberts' total is her first double-figure scoring effort of the young season and the 19th of the junior's collegiate career. The setback drops Southeast to 0-2 in the young season.

“I thought our kids played with good effort and focus today,” head coach Ty Margenthaler said. “We played pretty well to get the lead, but the last few minutes of the first half and the first seven minutes of the second half really hurt us today.”

Each team scored on their opening possessions with Desirae Ball nailing a jumper 16 seconds in and Yelena Rosado followed with a layup with 19:23 left.

After the Billikens grabbed a 6-3 lead, Karley Evans drilled a three-pointer to even the score at six apiece just over five minutes into the contest. After another SLU bucket, Bailie Roberts banked home a jumper to make it 8-8 with 13:48 to play in the opening frame.

SLU scored the next five points to grab a 13-8 lead nearly midway through the first half. After both teams went scoreless for the next two minutes and change, Southeast grabbed its first lead on the strength of an 8-0 run over the next 7:14. Rosado drove to the basket for a layup to start the surge and Bailie Roberts scored the next six Redhawk points to make it 16-13 with less than five minutes remaining in the opening stanza.

Southeast's lead stretched to 20-16 with 2:40 remaining, but SLU closed the half by scoring the final six points. A Desirae Ball layup off a turnover put the Billikens in front, 22-20 at the break. Roberts led all players with 10 points in the opening frame as Southeast shot 37.5 percent compared to SLU's 26.7 percent clip from the field. The Billikens held a 21-18 advantage in rebounding and committed only five turnovers compared to the Redhawks' nine.

Saint Louis scored the first 18 points of the second half to open up a 40-20 lead 6:28 into the final frame, extending the Billikens' run to 24-0 over a span of 9:21.

Roberts finally ended the scoring drought at the 13:13 mark and consecutive stops led to three-pointers from Evans and Shelah Fields to make it 40-28. Fields added a free throw to make it 40-29.

The Billikens answered back with a free throw by Lorreal Jones and a putback by Courtney Webb to up the lead back to 43-29.

Allyson Bradshaw scored her first collegiate points on a three-pointer with 5:22 remaining to cut the deficit to eight points (46-38). However, the Redhawks were only able to get as close as seven points the rest of the way.

Roberts was the only Redhawk who scored in double figures on Sunday, though Karley Evans and Yelena Rosado each finished with eight points. Brittany Harriel led Southeast with seven rebounds while Robert, Evans and Bianca Beck each dished out two assists.

Neither team shot the ball particularly well from the floor. Southeast made 32.7 percent of its field goal attempts while SLU countered by making 30.2 percent of its tries. The Billikens shot 2-for-6 (33 percent) from three point range) and the Redhawks went 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) from beyond the arc. Saint Louis had a decided edge at the free throw line, going 20-for-30 (66.7 percent) from the charity stripe while Southeast countered with a 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) mark from the line.

SLU grabbed seven more rebounds (45-38) than Southeast in the contest. Turnovers were nearly even with the Redhawks committing 16 turnovers and the Billikens making 14 miscues.

The Redhawks return to the court on Tuesday when they head to Illinois-Chicago. Opening tipoff is at 7 p.m. CT.