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Scoreboard

Torres_Alexia_20181123WB_vs_CentralMizzou_46
Antonio Morano Photography
59
Winner St. Mary's STMU 11-2, 1-0
57
St. Edward's SEU 8-7, 0-1
Winner
St. Mary's STMU
11-2, 1-0
59
Final
57
St. Edward's SEU
8-7, 0-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
St. Mary's STMU 10 17 13 19 59
St. Edward's SEU 12 13 18 14 57

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | RattlerAthletics.com

Last second shot leads to win for Women's Hoops

By Heather Kennedy | St. Mary's Athletic Communications

AUSTIN, Texas – With 3.9 seconds remaining and the score tied at 57-57, St. Mary's junior Alexia Torres received the ball on the inbounds pass and drove to the basket from the top of the key, scoring the winning basket as the clock expired to give the #21 Rattlers their opening win in Heartland Conference play and improve their record to 11-2.

"What a gutsy win on the road," said Head Coach Jason Martens. "The girls found a way to get stops down the stretch. Lex made a great play after our first option broke down and that's what upper classmen leaders do."

Torres, a native of San Antonio, scored six points – all in the fourth quarter -- and led the team with three assists. Sophomore Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) led all scorers with 20 points. It is the third time this season and the 8th time in her career that Banks has scored 20 or more in her career. Banks also added seven rebounds.

"Soteria was great today," Martens continued. "From the start she was aggressive and hitting her pull up jumper."

Senior Kaitlin Walla (Georgetown, Texas) also scored in double figures with 17, while sophomore Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) notched double digits in rebounds with 10 – the third straight game and the ninth time this season she's done so. Senior Crystal Thomas (San Antonio) led the game with a career-high three steals.

The Hilltoppers (8-7, 0-1 Heartland) were led in scoring by Lexi Cunningham, who came off the bench with 14 points and two steals, while Maryam Wilcher added 13 points and two blocked shots, while Sammie Dufek had a team-high six rebounds and Abigail Whyte had three assists.

One of the big differences in the game for the Rattlers was they took much better care of the ball in the second half. After committing nine turnovers in the first half, they cut that number almost in half in the second half, turning it over just five times. The Blue & Gold also forced the Hilltoppers into 21 miscues. Both teams had 34 rebounds in the game, however St. Mary's had 10 on the offensive end of the floor, while St. Edward's only had eight.
StMU tied for a season-low in made three-pointers, sinking only three in the game, but up for it driving to the basket. The team shot 40 percent for the game (24-for-60) and 20 percent from the arc (3-for-15). The Rattlers also missed just one from the free throw line, shooting 88.9 percent (8-for-9). SEU shot 38.5 percent (20-for-52), 40 percent from the three-point line (10-for-25) and 77.8 percent from the free throw line (7-for-8).

Banks opened the game with a jumper and the teams traded baskets for the 4-2 StMU lead, but then there was no scoring for almost two-and-a-half minutes before the Hilltoppers hit their first of 10 three-pointers on the evening for their first lead of the game. Trailing by three, Walla and sophomore Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) hit back-to-back jumpers to give the lead back to the Rattlers, 8-7 with 1:52 to play, however it was short-lived as just 18 seconds later SEU scored a layup for the third lead change of the quarter. Banks answered with another jumper for the fourth lead change at 1:05 and the 10-9 score and Cunningham nailed a three-pointer for SEU and the 12-10 tally with 45 seconds remaining for the first quarter final score.

The Hilltoppers hit back-to-back triples to open the second quarter and build an eight-point lead. The teams traded layups and then the Rattlers scored 10 of the next 12 points to cut the lead to one, 23-22 with 1:53 remaining in the half on a Walla three-pointer. Banks scored five during the run, Thomas had two and Walla had three. The Hilltoppers scored on a pair of free throws and the half ended with a Banks jumper and a Walla triple to give the Rattlers a 27-25 lead going into the locker room.

The third quarter opened with a layup by the Hilltoppers for the second tie of the game, then Wilson and Banks scored back-to-back baskets for a four-point advantage, 31-27. SEU scored five straight before Thomas answered with four-straight of her own to give the lead back to the Rattlers. Back-to-back three-pointers by St. Ed's flipped the advantage to the home team and they ended the quarter with a three-point lead, 43-40.

SEU hit a three to start the fourth quarter then the Rattlers scored six straight for the fifth tie of the game, 46-46. Cunningham hit another triple for the Hilltoppers, but Banks immediately answered with one of her patented jumpers in the key. St. Ed's built the lead back to six, 54-48 with 4:54 remaining in the game, but Walla made all four of her free throw attempts and Torres sank a layup to knot the score at 54-54 with 2:46 on the clock. A free throw by Banks gave the lead to St. Mary's with 1:51 left. Cunningham hit a jumper for the SEU lead just 10 seconds later, but Wilson responded for the Rattlers, hitting a jumper in the paint with 1:15 on the clock for the 57-56 advantage. After an extremely long review by the officials with 3.9 seconds remaining, an offensive foul was called on Walla and Cunningham made one of two free throws to tie the score and set up the winning shot.

The Rattlers return to the friendly confines of Bill Greehey Arena on Saturday to host Lubbock Christian at 1 p.m. The Lady Chaps opened conference play with a win over Texas A&M International on Thursday evening.
 
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