San Antonio–Farren Fox’s jumper in the lane with 1.0 seconds left was the difference as St. Mary’s University edged Abilene Christian University 66-64 in non-conference women’s basketball action Tuesday night at Bill Greehey Arena.

Fox’s (So., Round Rock) shot completed a wild final 25 seconds in which there were two lead changes and one tie. With 2:19 left to play the Rattlers took a seven-point lead on a three-point play by Natalie Gamez (Jr., San Antonio). Alex Guiton responded with back-to-back layups and Jamie Meyer hit a three-pointer with 25 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 62-61 lead.

St. Mary’s came right back down the court and Gamez drove to the hoop, sinking the layup and drawing the fifth foul of the game against Kristee Davidson. Gamez hit the free throw to give St. Mary’s a 64-62 lead with just 16 seconds left. Then the Wildcats responded.  Juanita Merchant (Sr., Angleton) fouled Guiton with eight seconds left and Guiton hit both free throws to tie the game at 64. That set up the decisive final play. The Rattlers inbounded the ball and Chastity Noble (So., El Paso) brought the ball down and passed the ball to Fox in the lane. Fox turned and sank a 10-foot shot with just one second left on the clock, sealing the win.

The basket was the only one of the game for Fox. Gamez led all players with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. She also pulled down nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Rachel Jones (Jr., Little Rock, Ark.) scored 14 points, while Ashton Benford (Jr., Waxahachie) scored 13 points. As a team the Rattlers hit on 43.6 percent (24-55) of their shots.

ACU was led by Kelsey Darby, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Guiton scored 13 points, while Jamie Meyer scored 11 points off the bench. As a team the Wildcats hit on 20-of-53 shots from the field (37.5%), and made 22-of-28 shots from the free throw line (78.6%).

With the win the Rattlers improved to 1-2 this season, while Abilene Christian fell to 0-3. St. Mary’s will return to action on Friday when they travel to Kingsville to take on Texas A&M University-Kingsville in the first round of the TAMUK Thanksgiving Tournament at 7 p.m.

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