SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The St. Mary's Rattlers used a strong start to the second half to down the Newman women's basketball team, 72-54, on Saturday (Jan. 3) at Bill Greehey Arena. The Jets dropped to 3-9 on the season and 0-4 in the Heartland Conference.
 
After a Cierra Tjaden layup to start the second half made it 31-30 in favor of StMU, the host Rattlers went on a 13-0 run to pull out to a 44-30 advantage less than 5 minutes into the second half.
 
With the Rattlers up by 14 at 46-32, NU went on a spurt of 9-2 to pull to within seven at 48-41; however, the Jets couldn't close the deficit to less than seven for the rest of the contest. NU used three triples during the run. Lizzy Harrison started the run of 3s at the 13:54 mark. Kesha Buckner made it two straight 3s with a triple with 13:06 remaining for a 46-38 score. After a StMU basket, Brianna Caldwell hit from deep for a 48-41 score with 11:38 left.
 
The Jets trailed by nine at 55-46 with 7:07 remaining then the Rattlers scored 11 unanswered points to put the game away at 66-46 with 4:18 left. The 20-point advantage was the largest of the game for StMU.
 
StMU's Morgan Pullins scored a game-high 26 points and pulled down seven rebounds. She went 10-of-15 from the field. Dezirae Elias added 17 points, and Kiara Etheridge totaled 12 points and seven rebounds.
 
The Rattlers finished at 48.3 percent from the field (28-58). They were just 1-of-10 from 3.
 
Caldwell poured in a team-high 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting, all from 3-point range. She totaled a game-high eight rebounds. Also in double figures was Kesha Buckner with 11 points. She had three steals.
 
NU shot 40 percent (10-25) from 3-point distance and totaled a 33.3 shooting percentage (19-57) from the field. Caldwell hit six of the 10 3s, and DeKendra Ledoux went 2-for-2 from 3.
 
The Jets return home for two conference games. NU takes on Lubbock Christian on Thursday (Jan. 8) at Fugate Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m. Audio, video and live stats will be available for the game.