SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Newman men's basketball dropped its fourth-straight contest with a 78-66 loss to St. Mary's Saturday afternoon inside Bill Greehey Arena in San Antionio, Texas. Eric Saunders scored 15 points to lead the Jets.

Neither team seemed too interested in taking control in the early stages of Saturday's game. The first five minutes of the contest resulted in four ties and six lead changes. A pair of jumpers from Justin Berry and Keaton Schultz allowed Newman (7-8, 0-2 Heartland) to take the largest lead of the game to that point, a 13-10 advantage with 13:59 remaining in the opening period. The Jets maintained that lead until a Josh Orta lay-up capped a 6-3 spurt by St. Mary's (11-5, 5-0 Heartland) that tied the game at 16-16 with 9:48 still to play. The next seven minutes saw four ties and five lead changes, but the Rattlers took the final lead of the half with a 9-0 run that gave the hosts a 34-27 lead with 20 seconds remaining in the opening frame. A Tyler Nordman three-pointer with eight seconds remaining trimmed the Rattler lead to four, 34-30, at the halftime break.

St. Mary's made its statement quickly in the second half. The Rattlers opened the final period on a 9-2 run, and took a 43-32 lead after a Josh Orta triple at the 17:25 mark. Newman reeled off the next four points of the contest and pulled to within seven, 43-36, at the 15:36 mark, but the Rattlers needed just a minute to push their lead back to 11 points, a pair of Jeremy Fonteneaux free throws gave St. Mary's an 11-point, 47-36 lead with 14:26 still to play. Newman simply had no answer from that point forward. The Jets pulled to within eight points on two occasions over the next two minutes, but couldn't find a way to get any closer as the Rattlers ran away with the 78-66 win.

Eric Saunders led the Jets with 15 points, while Tyler Nordman added 11 points off the bench. Justin Berry finished with 10 points as the only other Jet to post double-figures. As a team, the Jets shot 41.4 percent (24-58), but were out-rebounded 50-22.

Kevin Kotzur led the Rattlers with 14 points and eight rebounds.

With the loss, the Jets fall to 7-8 on the season, and 0-2 in the Heartland Conference. Newman will return to action Thursday, hosting Texas-Permian Basin in an 8 p.m. contest inside Newman's Fugate Gymnasium.