DALLAS — It was a total team effort for the St. Mary's University Men's Basketball team on Saturday afternoon as all nine players scored and grabbed at least one rebound in the 67-61 win over Lubbock Christian in the First Round of the NCAA South Central Regional in the Burg Center on the DBU campus.
Senior forward
Lachlan Bofinger (Sydney, Australia) led the team with 18 points and eight rebounds, while senior
Franklin Agu (London, England) scored 14 and the Lone Star Conference Newcomer of the Year
Damani Claxton (Bronx, N.Y.) scored 12 and tied for game-high honors with four assists.
Senior
Sebastian Mendoza (Riverside, Calif.), in his first game back after missing three straight, sparked the Rattlers (20-10) with nine first-half points – all from beyond the arc – and he grabbed five rebounds.
The Rattlers will face the winner of the Colorado School of Mines vs. West Texas A&M contest in the second round at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Mendoza and
Malcolm Steadman (Union City, Calif.) hit back-to-back three-pointers, and Bofinger and Agu each scored on layups to give the Rattlers a 10-0 advantage. The Chaps connected on a pair of threes to cut the lead to four, when freshman
Lawyer Jones (Waco, Texas) made a pair of free throws to push the lead back to six, 12-6. The teams traded baskets to 20-14 when junior
Wayne Wiggins (Mansfield, Texas) blocked a shot and Mendoza hit a triple on the other end to give the Rattlers a 23-14 lead with 8:46 on the clock. LCU used a 6-0 mini-run to cut into the lead, 23-20, but Mendoza drained another long ball. The clubs went back and forth the remainder of the period for the 32-27 score at the break. Mendoza led with nine points, while Agu was right behind him with eight.
The Chaps scored the first five points of the second half for the first tie of the game at 32-32, and they took their first lead at 36-34 on a layup, capping off an 8-2 run with 17:02 to play. Bofinger tied the game on a layup and Agu followed with a layup to give the Rattlers the lad back, 38-36. After the Chaps hit one of their eight three-pointers on the day, StMU used a 7-0 lead, with Claxton, Bofinger and Wiggins each contributing a basket to push the lead back to six, 45-39 with 10:48 on the clock and the Rattlers never trailed again. With 5:24 remaining, LCU closed within one, 51-50. However, Bofinger scored eight in a row, concluding with a pair of free throws for the 57-53 edge with 3:21 to play. The Rattlers made five of six free throws in the final 28.8 seconds to secure the win.
NEWS & NOTES
- The win for the Rattlers is the first in NCAA Tournament play since 2013, when the team reached the Regional Finals.
- 2024-25 marks the first 20-win season for St. Mary's since 2014-15 – the last time StMU advanced to the postseason.
- Lachlan Bofinger scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half, going 6-for-7 from the floor after the break.
- Damani Claxton scored the 600th point of his career in the game and now has 610.
- This is the first time in school history St. Mary's has won two games against Lubbock Christian in the same playing season. The Rattlers won the first three in the series, but the games were in three different years.
- The Rattlers' defense held Ethan Duncan, the Lone Star Conference Player of the Year to a season-low tying two points.
- St. Mary's has faced both possible opponents in the NCAA Tournament, dropping a 67-55 decision to West Texas A&M in the Rattlers' first-ever game on March 8, 2001. In 2014, StMU lost 90-67 to Colorado School of Mines in Denver.
- Lachlan Bofinger is three points shy of 900 for his career and one point away from 700 in his two years with the Rattlers.
