LAREDO, Texas - St. Mary's defeated Texas A&M International 67-59 on Thursday night at the TAMIU Kinesiology & Convocation Building. St. Mary's (14-10, 8-8 Heartland) is in excellent position to qualify for the upcoming Heartland Conference Tournament with the win while the loss places TAMIU (11-13, 7-9) in a precarious situation to reach postseason play.
TAMIU is one game behind St. Edward's, St. Mary's and UT-Permian Basin in the win column but St. Edward's and St. Mary's hold the tie-breaker by virtue of a season sweep over the Dustdevils. TAMIU's most legitimate shot at making the tournament is tying UTPB (8-7 in conference play after tonight's win over Oklahoma Panhandle State) in the final conference standings. The Falcons finish the season with a road game at Lubbock Christian and home games against Newman and Oklahoma Christian while the Dustdevils closeout the season next week with home games against Oklahoma Panhandle State and Lubbock Christian. If the Dustdevils can pull even with UTPB in the win column TAMIU would head to the Heartland Conference Tournament due to a season sweep over the Falcons.
TAMIU led by as many as five points in the first half of tonight's game and held a 31-29 lead at halftime. The first six minutes of the second half were back and forth with TAMIU's Jessica Prieto tying the score 40-40 on a layup at the 13:34 mark. St. Mary's went on a 15-3 run at that point to take a 55-43 lead at the 8:13 mark.
The Dustdevils got the Lady Rattler lead down to 59-55 on a free throw by Kiki Mathews at the 2:26 mark but TAMIU would get no closer than that four-point margin.
After making 13 of 25 field goal attempts in the first half (52%) the Dustdevils cooled off to connect on 10 of 28 attempts (35.7 %) in the second half. The teams were nearly even in turnovers but St. Mary's finished with a 36-30 rebounding edge.
Alexis Thomas finished with a team-high 18 points to go with eight rebounds and three steals. Mathews finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and a team-high five assists.
