Box Score
WARRENSBURG, Mo. — The early-season battle of unbeatens lived up to its hype Sunday.
Central Missouri squeaked past St. Mary's on BreAnna Lewis' steal-turned-breakaway layup at the buzzer, handing the Lady Rattlers their first loss of the season in a 74-72 triumph.
Jackie Woods (Jr., San Antonio) scored 22 with eight rebounds, while Morgan Pullins (So., Franklin, Mich.) notched a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards. Liz Boyd (Sr., San Antonio) also hit double figures with 10 points in the game.
Central Missouri led 35-29 at halftime of the back-and-forth game, and stretched its lead to 12 in the opening minutes of the second half. But the talented and focused Lady Rattlers would not go away, clawing to within one, 49-48, on Pullins' layup with 10:37 to go.
Lia Kioa's (Jr., Phoenix) clutch jumper in the paint tied the game at 72-72 with 47 seconds remaining, and Pullins' steal with 22 ticks left gave the Rattlers the chance to win it in regulation.
But a turnover with four seconds remaining set up Lewis for the game-winning layup, improving Central Missouri to 4-0 on the season while dropping St. Mary's to 3-1.
St. Mary's will be back in action Wednesday night, when they figuratively set the Thanksgiving tables with an early holiday treat in a 6 p.m. battle against cross-town rival Incarnate Word at Bill Greehey Arena.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.stmarytx.edu/athletics.
