Box Score
SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's Women's Basketball ended their winter schedule in the best way possible.
Lady Rattlers outplayed provisional Heartland Conference member Rogers State, 78-69, inside Bill Greehey Arena Saturday, entering the holiday break with an undefeated 5-0 conference record and an immaculate overall record of 10-1.
Several Rattlers stepped up to challenge that the Hillcats turned out to be with four players breaking double-digits.
In her second straight 20 plus showing,
Jackie Woods (Sr., San Antonio) led the game with 23 points, going 2-3 behind the arc and 11-12 at the line.
Morgan Pullins (Jr., Franklin, Mich.) pulled up big, flashing consistent, strong post moves to score a season-high 20 points to go .571 from the floor (8-14) and tallying a team-high seven rebounds. Pullins also led the team in steals and blocks with four and three, respectively.
Dezirae Elias (So., Chandler, Ariz.) proved a critical spark in the second half, scoring all 13 of her points in the final frame alone while
Kyra Littlejohn (Jr., Southfield, Mich.) was also key, chipping in 11 points. Elias led in assists with four and recorded one block.
Although the Rattlers won in nearly double-digits that marked their eighth straight victory to remain undefeated at home, the Hillcats put a scare in the Rattlers throughout the 40 minutes.
In a slow start, both teams struggled offensively that had a tie game at 11-11 with seven minutes left in the first half. The Hillcats (3-8, 1-6 in conference) were able to pull a five-point lead with five minutes remaining that the Rattlers quickly squashed after going on a 16-6 run in the final four minutes of the half.
At the half, the Rattlers held a five-point lead, 32-27.
Yearning to keep their conference record clean and continue to protect their home court with perfection, the Rattlers never let up in the second half to lead the entire 20 minutes, pushing their largest lead of the game to 11 with under three minutes left in the game. The Hillcats didn't go quietly, lighting up from behind the arc to record seven 3's in the second half alone but it wasn't enough to edge the Rattlers.
"We have a lot of momentum right now," said Woods of the Rattlers strong finish in the first half of the season. "We don't want to lose because it's going to mess up this perfect (conference) streak we have going. So we all have it in our minds that we can't lose so we have to play hard."
The Rattlers will break for the holidays with a cozy feeling of holding the No. 1 spot in league standings, returning to play on the road against provisional conference member Lubbock Christian at 5:30 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 2 in Lubbock, Texas.
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.rattlerathletics.com.
