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Scoreboard

Banks_Soteria_20190126WB_vs_UAFS_27
Antonio Morano Photography
73
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 0-1,0-0 Lone Star
86
Winner Southwestern Okla. SWO 3-0,0-0 GAC
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX
0-1,0-0 Lone Star
73
Final
86
Southwestern Okla. SWO
3-0,0-0 GAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 14 27 18 14 73
Southwestern Okla. SWO 27 20 21 18 86

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

Despite 28 From Banks, Women Drop Season Opener

By Heather Kennedy | RattlerAthletics.com

LUBBOCK, Texas – Despite 28 points from junior guard Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas), the St. Mary's Women's Basketball team couldn't mount the comeback against No. 20 Southwestern Oklahoma State and dropped the 2019-20 season opener 86-73 in the Arbor Inn Classic on the Lubbock Christian campus on Friday afternoon.

The Rattlers (0-1) fought back to close within one, 48-49 with 7:53 remaining in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs (3-0) immediately answered with a seven-point run to push their lead back to eight and the Gold & Blue could get no closer than five the rest of the way against a team that went 36-1 a season ago.

Banks' 28 points was just one point off her career-high of 29 from last year in the double-overtime victory over No. 1 Central Missouri on Nov. 23. She also added a team-high six rebounds and had five assists, also one off her career-high from the Jennies. Redshirt freshman Sydney Hardeman (Allen, Texas) also scored in double figures with 13 points and she and junior Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) each pulled down five boards.

 Junior Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) led the team with a career-high six assists, tying for game-high honors and bettering her previous high mark of four. Both Culiver and senior guard Alexia Torres (San Antonio) each had two steals to lead the club, while Culiver tallied the only blocked shot in the contest.

St. Mary's shot 50 percent for the game (31-for-62) and 45.8 percent from the three-point line (11-for-24), while SWOSU shot 54.2 percent from the field (32-for-59) and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc (10-for-26). The Rattlers also out-rebounded the Bulldogs 30 to 28.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the game before Banks scored on a jumper. After another SWOSU basket, Torres hit a triple to pull the Rattlers within one, 6-5 with 6:45 remaining in the first quarter. A 9-0 run on three straight three-pointers by the Bulldogs opened up a 14-5 lead before Hardeman stopped the streak with 2:58 on the clock with a jumper in the paint. Back-to-back baskets by the Bulldogs made the score 18-7. The Rattlers scored five of the next seven so the scoreboard read 20-12 before the Bulldogs scored six of the final eight of the quarter to make it 27-14. Banks led the way with seven points.

The Rattlers turned the tables and outscored the Bulldogs 27 to 20 in the second stanza. After the Bulldogs opened the quarter with a basket, the Rattlers used an 8-2 run to cut the score to eight, 30-22 with 5:49 to play. Freshman Tonia Bilic (Zagreb, Croatia) scored two of the baskets during the run. The teams traded a pair of three-pointers each with Banks hitting both for StMU for the 36-28 score and the teams continued the back-and-forth play throughout the remainder of the half for the 47-41 halftime score. Banks led the way with 10 points in the quarter for 17 in the half on 7-of-9 shooting from the field and four rebounds.

After a quick Bulldog bucket to begin the third quarter, the Rattlers went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to one, 49-48 with 7:53 to play. Freshman Briley Perkins (Houston, Texas) got things going with a three-pointer, while Banks followed with back-to-back baskets. The Bulldogs answered with a 7-0 run of their own when Torres snapped their run with her second triple of the contest to make the score 56-51. After the teams traded three-point plays, SWOSU used a mini five-point run to push its lead out to 10, 64-54 and ended the quarter up by the same margin, 68-58. Banks again led the way with seven points in the quarter, giving her 24 for the game.

Banks started things off in the final quarter with a putback basket. After one free throw by the Bulldogs, Bilic cut it to a six-point game, 69-63 one minute in, however SWOSU used a 10-2 run to widen the margin again, this time to 14, 79-65. A second-chance basket by Wilson stopped the streak, but the Bulldogs went on to win 86-73.

INDIVIDUAL & TEAM NOTES
  • Soteria Banks was one point shy of tying her career-high in scoring. Banks opened the season with 28 points on 12-of-19 shooting. Her career best of 29 points came in the win last year over then-No. 1 Central Missouri, a thrilling double overtime victory for the Rattlers, 101-97.
  • Mya Culiver tallied a career-best six assists, bettering her previous high of four which she'd accomplished three times. Culiver led the team in assists and tied for game-high honors in the category.
  • For the third time in her career, lone senior Lexi Torres hit two three-pointers in a game. Torres was 2-for-3 against the Bulldogs and gave her over 20 triples for her career (21).
  • Freshmen Briley Perkins (31 minutes, seven points), Tonia Bilic (14 minutes, eight points), Christina Baker (six minutes, two points) and redshirt freshman Sydney Hardeman (24 minutes, 13 points) all played in their first game for the Rattlers today, totaling four of the nine who saw action for the team.
  • The team shot 75 percent in the second quarter, the only quarter in which they out-scored the Bulldogs. The Rattlers were 12-for-16 from the field in that stanza and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc for the best shooting of the game.
  • The Rattlers out-shot the Bulldogs from the arc, making 11-of-24 for a 45.8 percentage, compared to 10-of-26 for SW Oklahoma State for 38.5 percent. In 16 of 29 games last season St. Mary's had a higher shooting percentage from the three-point line than the opposition.
UP NEXT
St. Mary's remains in Lubbock for the conclusion of the Arbor Hotels Classic and will face University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The Rattlers immediately turn their attention to Lone Star Conference play the following week, traveling to Texas A&M Commerce on Thursday, Nov. 21 and Texas-Tyler on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. The team opens the home portion of its schedule by hosting the annual St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic on Friday, Nov. 29 and Saturday, Nov. 30 by welcoming Central Oklahoma, Lubbock Christian and Southern Nazarene to the Alamo City for games at 2 and 4 each day.
 
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