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Scoreboard

Porter_Arysia_20190126WB_vs_UAFS_32
Antonio Morano Photography
48
Ark.-Fort Smith UAFS 6-13
65
Winner St. Mary's (TX) STMU 13-5
Ark.-Fort Smith UAFS
6-13
48
Final
65
St. Mary's (TX) STMU
13-5
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Ark.-Fort Smith UAFS 9 9 9 21 48
St. Mary's (TX) STMU 15 17 10 23 65

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

Seniors lift women's basketball to second-straight win

By Heather Kennedy | St. Mary's Athletic Communications

SAN ANTONIO – A dominating performance by the senior class helped lift the St. Mary's women's basketball team to a 65-48 victory over Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday afternoon.

With the wire-to-wire win, the Rattlers improve to 13-5 on the year and even their record in Heartland Conference play at 3-3, while the Lions dropped to 6-13 overall and also moved to .500 in league action.

Senior guards Kaitlin Walla (Georgetown, Texas) and Arysia Porter (San Antonio) combined to score 40 of the team's 65 points. The pair was also responsible for 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals between the two of them. Walla scored 24 and had three three-pointers bringing her season total to 54, which moves her into sixth on the school's single-season chart. Walla also scored her 1,000th career point. In her three years at Texas State, she amassed 728 points and now has 278 with the Rattlers, bringing her career total to 1,003. Walla also grabbed six rebounds against the Lions.

Porter came off the bench to score 16, the most since she returned to the lineup. She also had six rebounds, a game-high five assists and three steals, also a game-high. Porter has now recorded at least one steal in her last 18 games to bring her career total to 221 to move her into third all-time in school history. She passes Morgan Pullins (2011-15) who swiped 218 in her stellar career with the Blue & Gold.

Sophomore guard Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) also scored in double figures in the game, chipping in 13, while sophomore forward Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) continued to lead the team in rebounds, pulling down a game-high eight. Fellow sophomore forward Audrey Wandji (Houston, Texas) was right behind her with seven boards as the Rattlers out-rebounded the Lions 40 to 27 on the day. Wandji also blocked two shots on the afternoon.

"Those three – Walla, Banks and Porter – have been our big three all year," said Head Coach Jason Martens. "Arysia was looking like the old Arysia out there today, she's slowly getting back to playing how she was before the injury."

Ellie Lehne led UAFS with 18 points, while Alexsis Brown added 11 and Tamera Gulley scored nine and had a team-best five rebounds. Both Brown and Dachelle Terry had three assists, while Gulley blocked a game-high three shots and Brown had two steals.

The St. Mary's defense held UAFS to nine points in each of the first three quarters before the string was broken in the fourth and the Lions stepped it up to score 21. The Rattlers out-scored the Lions in each of the four stanzas and took a 32-18 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The 17-point final margin is the second-largest for the Rattlers this season, just one off the 18-point win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on November 13.

"We had a great team effort today," said Martens. "Our defense was really good and I thought we got back to doing what we do, playing the way we normally play. It's great to take advantage of being at home, and it helped us even our conference record."

Thursday, January 31 the Rattlers host St. Edward's at 5:30 p.m. in their next contest. The Blue & Gold won a last second come-from-behind game in Austin 59-57 on January 10 when junior guard Alexia Torres (San Antonio) hit a buzzer beater to save overtime.
 
"We talk about when we get beat by a team it's a revenge game, so I'm sure they're thinking the same thing," Martens concluded. "We have to be ready to go against them on Thursday."
 
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