Box Score
SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's Women's Basketball celebrated Senior Day in a thrilling fashion Saturday as it took down the Heartland Conference's No. 1Texas A&M-International in overtime, 88-83.
St. Mary's gave Rattler fans and a large, raucous crowd of Dustdevil fans a show in their regular-season finale at Bill Greehey Arena, recording their third overtime game of the season and first one that ended in a W.
The exciting victory in extended play has moved the Rattlers to the No. 2 seed for the Heartland Conference Tournament, which begins Friday at host school and regular-season champion TAMIU.
The Rattlers were right on par with the No. 1-seeded Dustdevils in 45 minutes of extended play Saturday with a spread offense that saw five Rattlers in double figures.
As one of the seniors honored before the game,
Jackie Woods had a statement performance in her last game in Bill Greehey Arena as a Rattler as the guard nearly notched a double-double after recording a team, and career-high nine rebounds along with 16 points.
Morgan Pullins (Jr., Franklin, Mich.) led the night in scoring with 21 and pulled in eight rebounds.
Dezirae Elias (So., Chandler, Ariz.) added 14 points while
Kyra Littlejohn (Jr., Southfield, Mich.) and
Kiara Etheridge (Fr., San Antonio) each chipped in 13.
Littlejohn led with an impressive eight assists while Elias recorded a team-high three steals, moving her into the No. 3 spot in the program's single-season steals record as she now has 72 on the season.
To start the game, the Lady Rattlers jumped out to a quick 15-5 lead over the DustDevils in the first half, going on a seven-point run when Pullins checked into the game, providing an early scoring fuel.
Later in the half however, the DustDevils made a run of their own, scoring 13 points to cut the Rattlers' lead to five in the last seven minutes of the half.
The Rattlers led at halftime 35-30.
Coming back from the break, the Rattlers were able to extend their lead to eight until TAMIU struck back to tie the game at 46 just five minutes into the half.
The teams continued to battle back and forth throughout the remainder of regulation as the score was tied 11 times and the lead switched seven times.
In the final five minutes, there were 13 fouls called between the two teams, allowing for the Rattlers' Littlejohn to sink two clutch free-throws and tie the game up at 69 to force overtime.
During overtime, the DustDevils fouled the Rattlers seven times and the Rattlers made the most of their time at the line, going 12-14 to seal their 88-83 victory over the Dustdevils.
The Rattlers will travel to Laredo to participate in the Heartland Conference Tournament starting on Friday and are slated to play No. 3 seed Newman in the tournament opener while No. 1 seed TAMIU will play No. 4 seed St. Edward's. Check back with RattlerAthletics.com for further tournament details.
