By Chad Peters | St. Mary's Athletics Communications
SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's Women's Basketball was in peak form on the small screen Saturday.
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Making their television debut, the Rattlers outpaced Oklahoma Christian from the start in a 72-57 wire-to-wire victory before a crowd of 528 at Bill Greehey Arena.Â
Soteria Banks scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting, while Arysia Porter added 12 points, six assists and five rebounds in a game that was aired locally on KCWX Channel 2 via the Citywide Sports Network.Â
The victory moved the Rattlers back to .500 on the season at 9-9, and into a tie for fourth place in the Heartland Conference standings with a 3-2 record in league play.
The Rattlers jumped on the Eagles (5-12, 1-4) from the start, surging to a 26-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. They never looked back, leading the entire game and by as many as 19 points in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.Â
Behind Banks' hot shooting, St. Mary's shot 40 percent from the floor as a team. They added 10 makes from 3-point range, shooting 34.5 percent from beyond the arc. Â
The Rattlers will hit the road next week, traveling to Claremore, Oklahoma to take on Rogers State on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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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), 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 70 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.
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