TYLER, Texas – The St. Mary's Women's Basketball team hit big shots when it mattered, sinking 10 three-pointers en route to a 53-45 victory at Texas-Tyler on Wednesday afternoon.
Trailing 10-3 in the first quarter, freshman
Juliett Martinez (San Antonio) drilled consecutive three-pointers and redshirt sophomore
Brianna Ford (San Antonio) drove to the basket for a layup to give the Rattlers (3-6, 3-6 Lone Star Conference) an 11-10 lead at the end of the period. At the end of the third quarter, the Rattlers and Patriots (0-7, 0-7 Lone Star) were knotted at 34 when sophomore
Briley Perkins (Houston) drained a pair of triples, sandwiched around a Patriots basket and a Ford layup to give the final lead of the game to the Rattlers.
Perkins led the team with 12 points, behind the strength of four three-pointers, while sophomore
Tonia Bilic (Zagreb, Croatia) scored a career-best 11 points and grabbed a career-best seven rebounds. Senior
Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) recorded the third double-double of the season and the 21
st of her career with 10 points and 14 rebounds – nine of which were on the offensive end of the floor.
Senior
Mya Culiver (Rockwall, Texas) led the club with five assists, Wilson had two blocked shots and Ford swiped two.
After shooting just 27.8 percent in the second and 27.3 percent in the third quarters, the Rattlers bounced back to connect on 70 percent of their fourth-quarter shots. They ended the game at a 38 percent clip, while the Patriots shot 34 percent from the field.
Both Taylor Jackson and Kelsey Crouse from UT-Tyler tied for game-high honors with Perkins in scoring with a dozen points each. Crouse also had a game-best five steals and led the Patriots with four assists.
The two teams will now travel to San Antonio for a rematch on Saturday at 3 p.m. Â The Rattlers will be attempting to win their third-straight, while the Patriots are still looking to break into the win column in 2020-21.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES
- Sophomore Tonia Bilic scored a career-best 12 points and was perfect from the field, making all three of her shots and both of her free throw attempts. She also grabbed a career-high seven rebounds.
- Freshman Juliett Martinez scored a career-high six points on back-to-back triples, scoring six points in just six minutes of action.
- Sophomore Briley Perkins hit four three-pointers in the contest, giving her eight in the last two games. It is the third time this season Perkins has hit four triples in a contest.
- Senior Hannah Wilson recorded her second consecutive double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds. She now has 21 double-doubles in her career. Nine of Wilson's 14 boards were on the offensive end of the floor, helping lead to 10 second chance points for the Rattlers.
- For the first time this season and since Feb. 20-27, 2020, the Rattlers have won back-to-back games.
- In two games against Texas-Tyler, the Rattlers have hit 24 three-pointers, as a season ago they established the school record with 14 from beyond the arc.
