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Scoreboard

Banks_Soteria_2V6A3993
Antonio Morano Photography
78
Winner Central Okla. CentOK 6-1,0-0 Mid-America Intercollegiate
71
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 2-3,1-1 Lone Star
Winner
Central Okla. CentOK
6-1,0-0 Mid-America Intercollegiate
78
Final
71
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX
2-3,1-1 Lone Star
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Central Okla. CentOK 10 21 27 20 78
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 15 18 23 15 71

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

Late Free Throws Hurt Women's Basketball

By Heather Kennedy, RattlerAthletics.com

SAN ANTONIO – It's often the small things in a basketball game a head coach points to as the difference between a win and a loss, and Friday St. Mary's Women's Basketball coach Jason Martens pointed out missed free throws and turnovers in the loss to Central Oklahoma, 78-71.
The Rattlers (2-3) turned the ball over 17 times and missed nine free throws, going 7-for-16 at the charity stripe (43.8 percent), while the Bronchos (6-1) – who are receiving votes in the WBCA Coaches poll – were 15-of-20 at the free throw line (75 percent).

Junior Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) continued her stellar season, tying her season high with 28 points and posting a season-high eight rebounds. She made a career-best six three-pointers, which ties the St. Mary's single-game school record knotting four others who have accomplished the feat a total of six times (April Jordan, Nicole Brantley 3 times, Dezirae Elias and Kaitlin Walla) and she tied the school record for three-point attempts in a game with 14, tying Walla from Dec. 18, 2018 against Cameron.

Freshman Sydney Hardeman (Allen, Texas) – in her first career start – posted a career-high 14 points behind the strength of four three-pointers and was the only other Rattler to score in double digits. Senior Alexia Torres (San Antonio) led the game and tallied a new career-high in assists with seven. Three other times in her career she's had six in a contest. For the fourth-straight game, junior Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) increased her season high in scoring by one point with nine points. Junior Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) also tied Banks for the team lead with eight boards and had a game-high three on the offensive end of the floor. Culiver paced the team with two steals and Wilson had the team's only block of the afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED
After the Bronchos scored the opening basket, the Rattlers scored the next 11 – hitting three straight triples with one each by Hardeman, Culiver and Banks – for the early 11-2 lead. UCO scored the next six to cut the lead to three, 11-6, but StMU scored four of the final six in the quarter for the 15-10 tally.

The teams exchanged layups to begin the second quarter and Wilson sank three free throws for the eight-point Rattlers advantage, 20-12. Back-to-back jumpers cut that lead in half, but Hardeman answered with consecutive baskets including a three to push the lead out to nine, 25-16 with 5:27 on the clock. After another five-point run by the Bronchos, Hardeman once again came through for the Rattlers with a triple for the 28-21 score. UCO scored seven in a row to tie the score at 28-28 with 2:50 left in the half, but freshman Bella Hughes (Argyle, Texas) gave the lead immediately back to StMU with a jumper. Banks followed with a three-pointer for a 33-28 advantage. A three-point play for the Bronchos made the halftime score 33-31.

Banks scored the first five of the third quarter but the Bronchos answered with five straight to keep it a two-point game, 38-36. The teams traded three-pointers and a pair of free throws by UCO tied the score for the second time at 41-41 with 5:40 on the clock. Consecutive baskets by Culiver kept the lead on the Rattlers side, and after a UCO basket, Banks was the one to hit back-to-back buckets for a six-point StMU lead, 49-43. The Bronchos used an eight-point run to take their first lead since the first basket of the game, 51-49 with 2:19 on the clock, but 22 seconds later Wilson knotted the score for the third time. The teams traded baskets the remainder of the half for the 58-56 UCO lead at the end of the third quarter.

The Bronchos increased their lead to as many as 10 in the fourth quarter and the Rattlers were able to trim it to two at one point, 65-63 with 4:51, but UCO made its free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win, 78-71.

TEAM & INDIVIDUAL PLAYER NOTES
  • Soteria Banks tied her season-high and came within one of her career-high in scoring with 28 points and tied the school record with six made three-pointers. She ties four other players who have hit six three's in a game six different times (April Jordan vs Huston-Tillotson; 12/7/1999 ; Nicole Brantley vs National Christian; 1/23/2002; Nicole Brantley vs Okla. Panhandle State; 2/20/2003; Nicole Brantley vs Tarleton State; 12/20/2002; Dezirae Elias vs Texas-Permian Basin; 2/14/2015 ; Kaitlin Walla vs Texas-Permian Basin; 11/16/2018).
  • Every game this season Mya Culiver has increased her season-high in scoring by one point. She tallied nine against Central Oklahoma after having five in the opener, six against UCCS, seven at Commerce and eight at Tyler.
  • Senior Lexi Torres tallied a career-high seven assists, bettering her previous high of six, which she'd accomplished three different times throughout her career.
  • Sydney Hardman scored a career-high 14 points in her first career start. The redshirt freshman bettered her previous high of 13 from Southwest Oklahoma State on Nov. 15.
  • St. Mary's has made double figure three-pointers in four of five games this season. The 12 triples is the second-highest total of the year behind the 14 at UT-Tyler on Nov. 23. The Rattlers entered Friday's game ranked 13th in the nation in three-pointers made per game at 10.0.
 
UP NEXT
St. Mary's hosts Southern Nazarene in the conclusion of the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Storm dropped their first game of the season in the opening game of the tournament to defending national champion, Lubbock Christian, 56-47 as the Lady Chaps came from behind to improve to 6-0. LCU and UCO will meet in the 2 p.m. contest.
 
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