Rough Start Hurts Women's Basketball In Final Road Contest

DENTON, Texas – Despite three players scoring in double figures, the St. Mary's Women's Basketball team couldn't overcome a slow start at Texas Woman's on Saturday afternoon, falling 65-55.

TWU (9-15, 7-13 Lone Star Conference) jumped out to the 14-6 lead after the first quarter and the Rattlers (13-12, 12-9 Lone Star) couldn't catch up.
Junior Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) led the trio of Rattlers with her 10^th double-double of the year. She scored 15 and grabbed 11 rebounds. Both junior Soteria Banks (Round Rock, Texas) and freshman Briley Perkins (Houston) added a dozen points each.

StMU was taken out of its game plan as they only recorded five assists on 19 baskets. Both Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) and Sydney Hardeman (Allen, Texas) had two dishes each, while Culiver and Banks each swiped two as the team tallied nine steals.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Rattlers scored the first five points of the game as Banks hit a jumper and a three-pointer, but they managed only one point over the next 7:45 and the Pioneers scored 14 of the final 15 of the period for the 14-6 lead.

Banks also began the scoring in the second quarter with a layup 30 seconds in and the Pioneers answered with five straight to push their lead to 11, 19-8 at the 8:08 mark. Wilson was fouled on an offensive rebound and made both free throws. After a TWU layup, Perkins drained a three and TWU answered with a traditional three-point play to keep their lead at 11. Wilson and Hardeman scored five straight to cut the deficit to six, 24-18. TWU sank a free throw and Wilson responded with a jumper with 1:05 on the clock for the 25-20 tally. Baker added a jumper with 14 ticks to make it a three-point game, but the Pioneers sank a pair at the charity stripe for the 27-22 halftime score.

The teams traded jumpers to start the second half and TWU scored the next seven to stretch their advantage to 12, 38-26 with 5:35 left. After a pair of free throws by senior Alexia Torres (San Antonio), the Pioneers added three in a row before the Rattlers scored six straight and the scoreboard read 39-32. The teams went back-and-forth the remainder of the quarter for the 45-37 score at the end of the third stanza.

After layups by each squad to start the final quarter, the Pioneers scored on back-to-back baskets before Wilson scored on a traditional three-point play to bring the score to 51-42 at 7:05. Banks added a free throw and the teams went back-and-forth to 56-45 when the Rattlers scored seven of nine to cut the deficit to six, 58-52 with 3:01 remaining. Texas Woman's made all four free throws in the final minute to push the lead back to 10 for the 65-55 final tally.

TEAM & INDIVIDUAL PLAYER NOTES

• The double-double for Hannah Wilson is the 10^th of the season and the 17^th of her career. She led the Rattlers in both categories with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
• The Rattlers out-rebounded the Pioneers 37-to-33, grabbing more boards than the opponent for the 18^th time this season.
• St. Mary's only turned the ball over 11 times in the game, the second-lowest total of the season, one off the lowest mark of 10 from the win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Jan. 18.
• Freshman Briley Perkins has scored in double figures in the last three games and four of the previous five. She has scored 10 or more eight times this season.

UP NEXT
St. Mary's concludes the regular season portion of its schedule on Saturday, Feb. 29 against St. Edward's at 2 p.m. Senior Alexia Torres will be honored prior to tipoff.