SAN ANTONIO – They say coming home is good for what ails you, and though the St. Mary's Women's Basketball team didn't get the victory, they almost made the improbable comeback, erasing a 22-point deficit from the first half before falling 63-61 on Tuesday evening to Saint Martin's.
The Rattlers (0-5) used a pressure defense to force the Saints into 24 turnovers and take their first lead of the game at 59-58 with 1:44 left in the fourth quarter. In the first half, the Saints (5-0) scored 15 points off StMU turnovers, but the Rattlers took much better care of the ball in the second half, allowing just five points off four turnovers.
Junior
Brianna Ford (San Antonio), sophomore
Maya Simon (Corpus Christi) and junior
Tonia Bilic (Zagreb, Croatia) provided big sparks off the bench as the trio combined to score 16 points, 13 coming in the second half during the comeback.
Senior
Hannah Wilson (Fredericksburg, Texas) led the team with a season-high 25 points and 13 rebounds – including eight on the offensive end of the floor. She missed her career-high by just two points as she scored 27 in last year's finale at #1 Lubbock Christian.
Both Simon and freshman
Faith Phillips (San Marcos) led the team with three assists each and five different Rattlers had a pair of steals each.
All 12 active players on the roster saw action on the night and 11 of the 12 scored at least two points.
The Rattlers don't have much time to rest for the holiday weekend as they host the eighth annual St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic beginning on Friday. Texas A&M Kingsville and Minnesota State face each other at 2 p.m., while the Rattlers follow at 4 p.m. against East Central.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES
- The 15 turnovers by the Rattlers is the second-lowest amount of the season, just one off the season low of 14 against Regis.
- Senior forward Hannah Wilson scored a season-high 25 points, just two off her career high of 27 from the 2021 season finale at #1 Lubbock Christian.
- Maya Simon tied her career-high with six points, doing so for the third time in her career, while Brianna Ford scored eight – a season-high for the junior and just two off her career-high of 10 from a year ago at Texas A&M Kingsville.
- The Rattlers out-rebounded the Saints, 37-33. It is the second-time in five games StMU has grabbed more boards than the opponent (Southern Nazarene).
- The 25 points by Wilson ties for the sixth-highest scoring output in the Lone Star Conference this season, while her 13 rebounds tie for the fourth-highest. In three of the five games this year, Wilson has totaled 13 or more rebounds.
