Antonio Morano Photography

Box Score

St. Mary's STMU 18-10

Newman NU 21-9

St. Mary's STMU

18-10

Final

Mar. 09, 2019

Newman NU

21-9

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	F
St. Mary's STMU	9	8	10	25	52
Newman NU	10	7	21	21	59

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | 3/9/2019 9:55:00 PM | RattlerAthletics.com

Women's Hoops fall in conference semifinals

By Heather Kennedy | St. Mary's Athletics Communications

TULSA, Okla. – Despite a career-high 19 points from junior point guard Alexia Torres, the St. Mary's women's basketball team's comeback rally fell short against Newman in the semifinals of the Heartland Conference Tournament, 59-52 on Saturday evening at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Rattlers (18-10) were without the services of senior Kaitlin Walla (Georgetown, Texas), who suffered an undisclosed injury just prior to game time. Walla is the team's leading scorer, averaging 14.4 points per game and she finishes her career tied for second on the school's single season list with 74 three-pointers on the year.

Sophomore Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) also scored in double figures for the Rattlers with 12 points and she led the team with seven rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot. Senior guard Arysia Porter also had three steals, while sophomore Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) came off the bench to lead the club with three assists.

Newman (21-9), the two-seed, advances to the final to face top-seeded Lubbock Christian after being led in scoring by Bria DeGrate with 22 points. Haley Albers chipped in 10 points off the bench, while Abbey George led the game with nine rebounds. DeDe Johnson had a contest-high five assists and two rejections and DeGrate led the Jets with two steals. The Jets also got hit with the injury bug as starter Faith Mason-Vestal went down early in the second quarter and did not return.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Jets scored on a layup, but Banks immediately answered for the first tie of the game. Neither team scored for over three minutes, but Newman eventually hit a triple at 6:19 for the 5-2 lead. Over a minute later Porter made a layup to cut it to one, 5-4 and two minutes later sophomore Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) added a layup to give the Rattlers their first lead, 6-5 with 3:04 to play. Newman scored the next five to retake the lead, 10-6, but senior Crystal Thomas (San Antonio) hit the team's first three-pointer for the 10-9 tally at the end of the first quarter.

Culliver opened the scoring in the second quarter with a layup to regain the lead for the Blue & Gold, 11-10, however The Jets immediately answered with a triple for the 13-11 advantage. Torres hit a jumper to knot the score for the second time, this time at 13 all. Thomas hit a jumper a little over two minutes later to give the Rattlers a 15-13 advantage but the Jets scored the next four to regain the lead. Torres scored on a layup with 1:12 left for the 17-17 tie, which the teams took into the locker room at the half.

Newman scored the first six points of the third quarter before Torres stopped the streak with a three-pointer for the 23-20 tally. The Jets used a mini 5-0 run but Banks halted the run with her triple at 4:53 for the 28-23 score. The teams traded jumpers and layups before Newman hit back-to-back three-pointers to end the third quarter up 11, 38-27.

The Jets continued the streak with another triple to open the fourth quarter to stretch their lead to 14, 41-27, but sophomore Jessica Barbosa (Bissai, Guinea Bissai) sank a pair of free throws to start a six-point run for the Rattlers. After one free throw for the Jets, sophomore Audrey Wandji (Houston, Texas) made both of hers at the charity stripe with 6:15 to play for the 42-35 score. A three-pointer by Porter brought the Rattlers within four, 42-38. The Jets made two free throws, Porter made one, Newman made a layup and Torres nailed a pair of free throws for the 46-41 score with 3:36 remaining. After three straight by Newman, Torres scored on a traditional three-point play to again make it a five-point game, 49-44 with 2:42 on the clock. Newman scored the next four, but Torres continued to shine, scoring three straight at 1:04. The next four free throws went to the Jets, but Banks erased three of them with a triple for the 57-50 tally. Each team scored two more for the 59-52 final.

WHAT THEY SAID
St. Mary's Head Coach Jason Martens
Opening Statement: "I talked about it last night, I thought this was going to be a hard fought battle and sure enough, it was. Newman is a really good team and we couldn't get over the hump against them this year – all three times we couldn't get the "W" and it's unfortunate. I couldn't be more proud of this team and the fight that this team has. They're special."

On his team's toughness: "We knew coming in this team had a chance to be special, that they had a chance to be really good and we were and it turns out we were special for a different reason. They overcame so much this year. Eight players this year missed games due to injury. We have two starters scheduled for surgery next week that didn't miss any games. It's amazing how tough these girls were, I mean physically tough. This girl to my left (Alexia Torres) plays in so much pain, but you'd never know it. There are days I'll get a text from the athletic trainer saying she can't practice because she can barely walk. She might not be able to walk tomorrow, but you wouldn't know that out there. She'll shoot free throws and she can't bend her knees because she's in so much pain – but she's fine. And this girl here (Arysia Porter) missed six, seven or eight games with injury, some torn cartilage in her knee. Found a way to keep on fighting. I could go through every one of the girls on our roster and I told them I would never question their physical toughness because, my gosh, they're in so much pain every day and that's what makes them special."

Senior Guard Arysia Porter
"I felt like we had great looks, but it just didn't fall for us tonight, but our defensive energy was amazing but it didn't lead to our offense. We had our looks, we just didn't knock it down."

On Walla: "It's so crazy. She's the old lady, she's been playing for six years. She's old, so she knows what to do on and off the court. Her not playing tonight – it's crazy – she's a key player that we needed. She was sitting on the bench telling us what to do individually. She was telling me I needed to put it all out there on the floor like we did last night and that I need to go out with a bang."

Junior Guard Alexia Torres
On playing without Walla: "I love Kaitlin Walla – she's my best friend on the team. It was real heartbreaking to find out today that she couldn't play, so right then and there I think the whole team knew that we had to fight for her; that we had to take it for her. We wanted her to continue – and there was no pressure on me – I was just playing. I knew we needed to score a bucket; I just gave it my all; I just tried my best to put it all out there and get bodied – whatever it took to get points to win. That's what I wanted to do for my team."

Newman Head Coach Darin Spence
"That was a tough game. We always have those kinds of games with St. Mary's. They're well coached and tough. In my seven years at Newman, we have always played those types of games against them. My hat's off to them."

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER NOTES

Junior guard Alexia Torres scored a career-high 19 points, shattering her previous high of 12 from the game against Oklahoma Christian on Feb. 16, 2019. It is the fourth time this season and the fifth time in her career she's scored in double figures (83 games).
Sophomore guard Soteria Banks scored in double digits in eight of the last nine games of the season and scored eight or more in the final 12 contests of the year and in 19 of 20.
Banks' 32.71 minutes per game is tied for the 10^th best mark in single season school history with Erin Griffin (2003-04). Griffin played in 24 games and 785 minutes. The top mark in Rattler history is 35.80 minutes per game by Jackie Woods from 2013-14.
Senior guard Arysia Porter ends her career etched all over the career record books. She ranks amongst the school's leaders in the following categories:
- 2^nd Games Started: 97
- 2^nd Minutes Played: 3,395
- 3^rd Steals: 240
- 5^th Minutes Per Game: 32.03
- 5^th Steals Per Game: 2.26
- 6^th Scoring: 1,375
- 6^th Field Goals Attempted: 1,160
- 6^th Free Throw Percentage: 78.3% (264-337)
- 7^th Field Goals Made: 500
- 7^th Free Throws Made: 264
- 9^th 3-Pointers Attempted: 355
- 10^th 3-Pointers Made: 111
- 10^th Assists: 259
Senior guard Kaitlin Walla ends her career tied for second on the single-season charts with 74 three-pointers in one year. She knots Meosha Nash from 2001-02. Nash holds the record with 77 triples from the 2002-03 year as well. Walla's 195 attempts also establish a new record at StMU, breaking the old mark of 191 by Nash from 2002-03.