Important Final Week on Tap for Women's Basketball

This Week in Rattlers Basketball
Game #25 • Home Game #14 • St. Edward's • Thursday, February 26 • 5:30 p.m.
Notes & Connections
•    Thursday will be the 100th game in the all-time series with St. Edward's. St. Mary's holds a 65-34 edge with a 21-5 record against the Hilltoppers in Bill Greehey Arena.
•    This is the second-straight season the two teams have met on February 26. The Rattlers won 63-61 last season.
•    Each of the last four meetings between the rivals have been decided by five or fewer points, including a 61-60 win for SEU in Austin on Feb. 9.
•    Former Rattler Ramsey Robledo is in her second season playing for St. Edward's.
•    St. Ed's has four players from San Antonio in Robledo, Kendall Beck, JP Perkins, and Allison Howe.
•    StMU senior Sian Phipps and SEU junior Jasmyn Jackson were high school rivals in the CFISD in Houston.
On This Date: Feb. 26
•    StMU is 10-2 all-time in games played on Feb. 26, with a 5-0 record at home.
•    The Rattlers have won eight in a row on Feb. 26, last losing in 1994.
•    StMU is 1-1 against St. Ed's, winning 63-61 last year.

Game #26 • Road Game #12 • at Cameron • Saturday, February 28 • 1 p.m.
Notes & Connections
•    St. Mary's holds an 11-7 lead in the all-time series that began in 1982.
•    The Rattlers are 5-1 all-time in Lawton, including a 56-51 victory a season ago.
•    Cameron leading scorer Madison Griggs played at the same high school as StMU MBB senior guard Wayne Wiggins (Mansfield Legacy HS).
•    CU Head Coach Jeff Mahoney and StMU HC Valerie Huizar are both in their fourth season at current school.
•    Cameron has been eliminated from the LSC Tournament, and hosts Oklahoma Christian and UT Dallas before finishing the season with the Rattlers.
•    Madison Griggs leads the Lone Star Conference in both scoring (18.5/game) and minutes played (34.25), while Kloe Heidebrecht leads the league with 2.67 triples per contest.
On This Date: Feb. 28
•    StMU is 7-4 all-time in games played on Feb. 28, with a 4-2 mark on the road.
•    The Rattlers haven't played on this date since 2015, a 78-51 win at Oklahoma Panhandle State.
•    StMU and Cameron have never played on this date.

 

Wrapping Things Up: The St. Mary's University Women's Basketball team concludes the regular season, hosting rival St. Edward's on Thursday before traveling to Lawton for a Saturday afternoon match-up with Cameron. The Rattlers need either two wins or one win paired with a Texas A&M International loss to clinch a spot in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. Six of the eight spots have been secured, with the Rattlers, Dustdevils and UTPB Falcons battling for the final two places.

Trending Upward: The 15 wins for St. Mary's are the most since the 2018-19 season, while the 10 LSC wins are tied for the most in Head Coach Valerie Huizar's career. The record for league wins while a member of the Lone Star is 12 from the first season, 2019-20, and can be tied with a sweep of the final week.

The Century Club: Both sophomore Christin Callens and junior Allie Garcia have made exactly 100 field goals this season, and are separated by only one point. Callens has 258 points, making 53 from the free throw line and five three-pointers, while Garcia has 257 points with 37 triples and 20 free throws.

Malik Matches Lobos: St. Mary's did a fantastic job of keeping Sul Ross State off the glass on Thursday night, as they out-rebounded the Lobos 43-to-19. Sophomore Raynne Malik grabbed 12 boards, matching all nine Lobos who combined for a dozen. SRS did have seven team rebounds. The 19 rebounds is the lowest by a St. Mary's opponent this season and the fewest by Sul Ross State in 2025-26.

Take Two, They're Free: Senior Quezia Bertoni is shooting 86.8 percent from the free throw line (46-for-53), which ranks seventh on the St. Mary's single season list. Fellow senior Aina Maynou leads the team with a 92.0 percent (23-for-25), however she needs two more makes to be eligible for the record. The single season free throw percentage record at St. Mary's is 91.2 percent by Donna Smith from 1985-86 (52-of-57).

Sultana of Swats: Raynne Malik has 54 blocked shots this season, which leads the Lone Star Conference, and is tied for fifth on the St. Mary's single season charts. Added to the 56 swats she had a season ago, and Malik ranks fifth on the school's career charts with 110. Malik currently ranks 10th in the nation with her 2.25 blocked shots per game.

Triple Threat: St. Mary's has made 174 three-pointers this season, which ranks sixth on the StMU single-season charts. The Rattlers rank third in the Lone Star Conference with 7.3 three-pointers per game, just 0.3 behind league-leader West Texas A&M with 7.6. The 2019-20 team holds the school record with 211 three-pointers in 28 games. This year's .333 three-point field goal percentage ties for 10th on the single-season chart.

Within Striking Distance: This season's team has blocked 104 shots, which is tied for fourth on the single-season charts with last year's squad, and is only 13 away from the school record of 117 by the 1999-00 team. The Rattlers lead the Lone Star and rank 25th in the nation with 4.3 blocks per game.

First Time for Everything: For the first time in 2025-26, the Rattlers dropped a game when leading for the majority of the minutes when they lost a heartbreaker to Angelo State. Twice this season, StMU has come back to win when trailing through most of the game, beating both Oklahoma Baptist and Washburn in the StMU Thanksgiving Classic.

Triple or Nothing: Junior Allie Garcia has quietly amassed a streak of 19 straight games with at least one three-pointer. The Australian has scored in double figures in nine of the last 10 games. Senior Aina Maynou has made at least one from beyond the arc in six-straight games, and has made 18 in those six games, including five each against St. Edward's (Feb. 9) and Western New Mexico (Feb. 21). 

Made To Be Broken: The Rattlers have seven student-athletes who have made 10 or more three-pointers this season, tying the school record for the most players with 10 makes or more. All 15 players on the roster have attempted at least one triple. The team has made 174 three-pointers, 30 more than their opponents (144). Last year's squad also had seven who made at least 10 from beyond the arc.

For the Highlight Reel: Twice this season, senior Aina Maynou has drained long three-pointers at the buzzer to end the first quarter. Maynou nailed a half-court shot in the team's 79-67 win over Western New Mexico on Dec. 4, and then pulled up well behind the arc to drain a shot as time expired in the first period at Oklahoma Christian on Jan. 22. 

They're Smart Too: The Lone Star Commissioner's Honor Roll for the fall semester was released on Jan. 20, and the Rattlers WBB team had 10 named to the list in Quezia Bertoni, Emily Buitron, Allie Garcia, Imani Ivery, Brooke Kleinig, Raynne Malik, Aina Maynou, Andrea Montesinos, Cornelia Petersson, and Peyton Stellato. Both Bertoni and Montesinos had 4.00 GPA's in the fall.

League Leaders: St. Mary's leads the Lone Star Conference in blocked shots (4.3), ranking 25th in all of Division II. The Rattlers also rank second in the LSC in fewest fouls (15.1), three-point field goal percentage (33.3) and are third in field goal percentage defense (35.5), defensive rebounds per game (27.0), scoring defense (56.1) and three-pointers per game (7.3).

Middle of the Pack: St. Mary's was selected to finish in the middle of the pack in the LSC 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.