SILVER CITY, N.M. — The St. Mary's University Women's Basketball team started strong and never looked back, winning 65-46 at Western New Mexico on Saturday afternoon.
The Rattlers (15-9, 10-8) came out on fire from long range, draining nine three-pointers in the first half to build a 41-25 lead at halftime, and despite a rocky third quarter, the bench players settled things down in the fourth quarter to post the 19-point victory.
St. Mary's scored 20 points in the first quarter, tying for the most this season, and then scored a season-high 21 points in the second quarter for a season-most 41 points at halftime. The last time the Rattlers scored 20 in the first 10 minutes was the last time they played the Mustangs, on Dec. 4 at Bill Greehey Arena.
A big reason for the fast start was the hot-shooting of senior
Aina Maynou (Cabrera de Mar, Spain), who hit all four of her three-point attempts from almost the exact same spot on the floor in the first half, leading all Rattlers with 12 points. She ended the contest with 15 points.
Joining Maynou with double figures in the scoring column was sophomore forward
Raynne Malik (London, Ontario) with 10 points, and she led the team with eight rebounds, as StMU won the battle of the boards, 43-to-35.
Sophomore guard
Tiara Louis (San Antonio) led the game with three assists, and both junior
Brianna Vargas (El Paso, Texas) and senior
Sian Phipps (Houston) came off the bench to score six points each, as the Rattlers' bench out-paced the Mustangs (1-24, 1-17) one 23-to-5.
Teeya Gordon notched a double-double in leading the Mustangs with 18 points and 14 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end of the floor, while Jordan Sapien added 14 points. Brelee Nichols recorded a game-high four steals, helping WNMU score 19 points off turnovers.
The Rattlers head into the final week of the regular season tied for seventh place in the Lone Star Conference standings, knotted with UT Permian Basin, which the Rattlers have the tiebreaker over via the win last week. St. Mary's hosts St. Edward's on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., before making up the weather-postponed contest at Cameron on Saturday at 1 p.m.
