Women's Basketball Travels West For Two

This Week in Rattlers Basketball
Game #12 • Road Game #4 • Eastern New Mexico • Friday, January 8 • 6:30 p.m. CT/5:30 p.m. MT
Notes & Connections
•    The 11th game in the series between St. Mary's and Eastern New Mexico features a pair of nine-win teams.
•    Both teams feature a pair of players from Australia in Allie Garcia and Brooke Kleinig from Adelaide for the Rattlers and Hannah Jensen (Mackay) and Jaz Salon (Melbourne) for the Greyhounds, though their hometowns are more than eight hours across the continent from each other.
•    The Greyhounds lead the league in assists per game (14.9), bench points (38.2) and turnover margin (7.4), while the Rattlers lead in blocks (5.5) and field goal percentage defense (.339).
•    StMU is 3-0, while ENMU is 2-1 in common teams faced this season. Both teams defeated Sul Ross State and Western New Mexico, while the Rattlers beat Oklahoma Baptist and ENMU lost 93-85.

On This Date: Jan. 8
•    StMU is 8-5 in games played on Jan. 8 with a 5-4 mark in road games.
•    StMU and ENMU have never met on Jan. 8 and have only played once in January in the 10-game series.
•    The Rattlers are 4-3 in conference games on Jan. 8.

Game #13 • Road Game #5 • #7 West Texas A&M • Saturday, January 10 • 1 p.m.
Notes & Connections
•    For the second-straight week, the Rattlers will square off against the No. 7 team in the WBCA poll, this week against West Texas A&M.
•    The Rattlers won for the first-ever time in Canyon a season ago, defeating the Lady Buffs 65-57.
•    WT junior Taylor Haggan played her freshman season at StMU, setting the freshman scoring record before it was broken last year by Christin Callens.
•    Both teams have defeated Sul Ross State and Western New Mexico in 2025-26 as the only common opponents.
•    This will be the fifth time in the 14 games of the series that started in 2002 where the Lady Buffs are ranked in top 25.
•    WT ranks second in the nation in rebounds per game (45.86) and fifth in rebound margin (+13.9).

On This Date: Jan. 10
•    StMU is 9-3 in games played on Jan. 10 and 6-2 in road games.
•    StMU and WT have never played on Jan. 10, though the Rattlers are 6-2 in conference games and 2-1 against current LSC teams on this date.

STORYLINES
Headed West: The St. Mary's Women's Basketball team takes to the road for the week, playing at a pair of LSC undefeated teams in Eastern New Mexico (9-4, 5-0) on Thursday evening and No. 7 West Texas A&M (13-1, 5-0) on Saturday afternoon. It is the fourth and fifth road games for the Rattlers this season, where StMU is 2-1.

Streak Snapped: The win over No. 7 Lubbock Christian on Sunday snapped a 23-game losing skid against nationally-ranked teams for the Rattlers. The previous win against a WBCA top 25 team came against #23 Angelo State on Dec. 8, 2018 (70-64). St. Mary's is now 8-53 against nationally-ranked teams since joining the Division II ranks in 2000-01.

Starting Strong: Since moving to the starting lineup four games ago, senior Quezia Bertoni has scored in double figures three times and is averaging 11.0 points per game, well above her 5.8 average in her first four games off the bench. Last week in the two wins over Midwestern State and No. 7 Lubbock Christian, Bertoni shot 75% from the field (12-16) and was 4-for-5 from beyond the arc (80%). The Brazilian now needs only four points for 200 in her StMU career.

Hang Ten: Sophomore forward Christin Callens has scored in double figures in 10 straight games and leads the team with 12.5 points per game. Callens was the first Rattler to score 100 points this season and she scored the 500th of her career against Central Oklahoma on Dec. 18, and now has 540. Callens is on pace to become the 18th 1,000 point scorer in St. Mary's history with her 13.8 points per game average.

League Leaders: St. Mary's leads the Lone Star Conference in both blocked shots (5.5) and field goal percentage defense (.339). Those numbers also rank the Rattlers ninth and 14th in all of Division II, respectively. StMU also ranks 30th nationally in scoring defense (55.8) and 36th in defensive rebounds (28.5).

Making Them Count: St. Mary's shot 50% from the field in the team's win over #7 Lubbock Christian on Sunday. It is the best field goal percentage of the season, and the highest percentage since the 2023-24 season finale at St. Edward's (Feb. 29, 2024) when the Rattlers also hit half of their shots (24-48, 50%).

Crashing the Boards: After recording two rebounds or fewer in each of the first eight games, junior guard Allie Garcia has had five or more in each of the last three, including a career-high seven in the win over Midwestern State. She's averaging 6.0 per game during the three-game stretch.

Best Start Ever: The 7-0 start for the Rattlers was the best in school history, breaking the previous record of six wins by the 1997-98 team. 

Sultana of Swats: Sophomore Raynne Malik blocked two shots against Central Oklahoma to move into sole possession of fifth place on the St. Mary's career list with 82 swats and now has 85. Malik passed Ashton Benford (2005-09), who blocked 80 shots in her career. Next on the StMU chart is Teri Mollett (1979-82) with 123 blocks.

Ten For Ten: Ten different Rattler have scored in double figures during the 2025-26 season. Christin Callens has done so a team-best nine times, while Aina Maynou is second with five. Both Quezia Bertoni and Allie Garcia have done so four times and Imani Ivery, Tiara Louis, Raynne Malik, Andrea Montesinos, Lena Newby and Brianna Vargas have all hit the double digit milestone once.

Take Two, They're Free: Sophomore Christin Callens currently ranks second in the Lone Star Conference and 43rd in NCAA Division II in free throw percentage, shooting 86.1. Seven times this season, Callens has been perfect at the charity stripe and has made 31-of-36 attempts. She has increased her percentage almost 12 percent over her first year, improving from .743 (78-105) in 2024-25.

Malik Magic: Sophomore forward Raynne Malik earned her second Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week award after the Rattlers won the StMU Thanksgiving Classic. Malik blocked seven shots and grabbed 19 rebounds in the two Rattlers wins. Malik added six points per game and fueled a unit that allowed just 27.4 percent shooting over the two contests.

A November to Remember: The 5-0 record in November marks only the second time in school history the Rattlers have gone unbeaten, as the 1997-98 team was 4-0 in the 11th month in establishing the school record for victories to start a season with six.

First to Twenty: Junior guard Allie Garcia became the first Rattler this season to top the 20-point scoring milestone, leading the team with 21 points in the one-point win against Western Colorado on Nov. 22. Garcia scored 12 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back deep three-pointers to regain the lead with 4:17 remaining, and the Rattlers held on for the victory.

Middle of the Pack: St. Mary's has been selected to finish in the middle of the pack in the Lone Star Conference this season, getting voted 10th in the 17-team league. The usual suspects topped the poll in Texas Woman's (20 first-place votes, 810 points), Lubbock Christian (14, 776), UT Tyler (8, 761) and West Texas A&M (6, 663). Eastern New Mexico rounded out the top five with two first-place nods and 657 points. The Rattlers grabbed 438 points for 10th in the poll.