Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

St. Mary's University Athletics

Official Athletics Site of St. Mary's University

Scoreboard

Torres_Alexia_20191130WB_vs_SNU_37
Antonio Morano Photography
64
Winner Eastern N.M. EastNM 7-1,1-1 Lone Star
61
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 2-5,1-2 Lone Star
Winner
Eastern N.M. EastNM
7-1,1-1 Lone Star
64
Final
61
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX
2-5,1-2 Lone Star
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Eastern N.M. EastNM 17 12 15 20 64
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 15 14 8 24 61

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

Late Rally Falls Short For Women's Basketball

By Heather Kennedy, RattlerAthletics.com

SAN ANTONIO – A nine-point run cut it to a one-point game with 26 seconds remaining, but the Eastern New Mexico Women's Basketball team made both of its free throws a second later to clinch the 64-61 win over St. Mary's at Bill Greehey Arena on Thursday night.

The teams entered the locker rooms tied 29-29 at halftime, but the Rattlers (2-5, 1-2 Lone Star Conference) struggled shooting in the third quarter and allowed the Greyhounds (7-1, 1-1 Lone Star) to take a seven-point lead, 44-37 advantage. The Gold & Blue outscored ENMU 24-20 in the final stanza, including nine of the final 11 of the game, but the comeback bid fell just short and they lost their third-straight contest of the season.

Junior guard Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) led all scorers in the contest with 19 points, while both junior forward Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) and senior guard Alexia Torres (San Antonio) posted season highs with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Wilson also tied her season-high with nine rebounds and Torres led all players with seven assists. Both Torres and freshman Bella Hughes (Argyle, Texas) swiped two balls each and Wilson blocked two shots on the evening.

For the third time this year, the Rattlers recorded a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, garnering 17 assists and 13 turnovers, only one off their season-low of 12. Six of the seven players who saw action in 10 or more minutes in the game dished out an assist and Torres and junior guard Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) combined for 12 of the 17.

St. Mary's shot 35 percent for the game (21-for-60) and 33.3 percent from the three-point line (10-30). The team also connected on 69.2 percent from the free throw line (9-of-13). Eastern New Mexico was slightly better overall at 35.9 percent from the floor (23-for-64) but only 32 percent from the arc (8-for 25) and just 47.6 percent at the charity stripe (10-of-21).

HOW IT HAPPENED
Freshman Sydney Hardeman (Allen, Texas) scored her only basket of the game as the first points of the contest and the Greyhounds answered with five consecutive points for the early lead. Banks hit a shot from downtown to knot the score at 5-5 and Culiver followed with the rare four-point play after getting fouled on her made three to lift the Rattlers to the 9-5 lead with 5:05 left. After an ENMU bucket, the teams traded three-pointers for the 12-10 tally and the third tie of the game came at 3:01 on a fastbreak jumper in the paint by the Greyhounds to make it 12-12. The teams again exchanged triples and with 1:06 left, ENMU made the final basket of the quarter for the 17-15 lead.

They stretched it to a four-point advantage just 23 seconds into the second quarter on a pair of free throws, but that was quickly erased when the Rattlers went on an 8-0 run for the 23-19 lead. Freshmen Briley Perkins (Houston, Texas) and Hughes hit back-to-back three's in the stretch. ENMU stopped the streak with a jumper at 6:08 and the teams traded layups for the 25-23 tally with 3:48 remaining in the half. The teams continued to trade points over the final minutes until ENMU tied the score with 34 ticks left at 29-29.

Culiver began the third quarter with one free throw and the teams again traded three-pointers so the scoreboard read 33-32 with 7:46 on the clock. The Greyhounds used a 10-0 run over the next 5:25, but Wilson snapped it at the 1:55 mark for the 42-35 score. The teams exchanged jumpers for the 44-37 end to the third stanza.

The Rattlers scored the first three points of the final quarter to cut the deficit to four, 44-40, but the Greyhounds immediately answered with a six-point run to push their lead back to 10, 50-40 with 5:54 remaining. After a Wilson layup, ENMU rattled off four straight for its biggest lead of the night, 54-42 with 4:25 to go. Wilson scored four straight for the Rattlers and after two free throws for ENMU, the teams traded triples three straight trips for the 62-55 score. Banks made one at the 2:13 point to kick off the nine-point rally that brought the Rattlers within one, 62-61 with 26 seconds left, but ENMU made a pair of free throws for the 64-61 score. Culiver had a look at the three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining, but the shot was wide and on the team's next possession after ENMU missed its free throws, they turned the ball over.

TEAM & INDIVIDUAL PLAYER NOTES
  • In five of seven games this season the Rattlers have sunk double digit three-pointers. Tonight, the team made 10 triples. The season high is 14 at Texas-Tyler on Nov. 23.
  • The team had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the third time this year with 17 assists to 13 turnovers. The 13 turnovers ties for the second-lowest total of the year, one off the low of 12 from the game on Nov. 16 against UC-Colorado Springs.
  • Both Hannah Wilson (14) and Lexi Torres (11) posted season-highs in scoring, while Audrey Wandji (5) and Mya Culiver (7) both had season-highs in rebounding. Culiver's total is also a career-high, bettering her previous best of five from the game on Nov. 6, 2018 at Texas A&M Commerce. Tonight was the first time in Torres' career she's hit three three-pointers in a contest. On three previous occasions, the senior has nailed two triples.
  • In the last three games, Torres has tallied at least seven assists in each game, giving her 22 dishes over the stretch. She currently ranks fourth in the Lone Star statistics with an average of 4.7 per game and she is second in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.5 as tonight she had seven assists with just one TO.
  • The Rattlers entered the game Thursday ranking ninth in the nation in three-point field goals made per game with 9.7 and 14th in three-point field goal percentage at 38.4. Both numbers also lead the Lone Star Conference. Individually, Soteria Banks ranks fifth in the country with her 3.83 triples per game.
UP NEXT
The Rattlers host #16 West Texas A&M on Saturday at 5 p.m. in a Lone Star Conference match-up. The game will be played at Incarnate Word due to graduation ceremonies on the St. Mary's campus. The team closes out the 2019 campaign at St. Edward's on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 1 p.m. before breaking for the holidays.
 
Print Friendly Version

Sponsors