January 10, 2008
San Antonio–Four St. Mary’s University players scored in double figures as St. Mary’s remained perfect in Heartland Conference play with an 82-69 win over Lincoln University men’s basketball action Thursday night at Bill Greehey Arena.
The Rattlers came out of the gates red-hot and took a big early lead. The Rattlers started the game with a 28-7 run and looked to have the game wrapped up early. But after a 1-for-13 start to the game shooting the Blue Tigers warmed up. They finished the first half by hitting on 8-of-17 shots and pulled to within 14 points at the break.
St. Mary’s kept the lead in double digits throughout the second half, but the hot shooting of Mario Lucchesi kept the Blue Tigers close. Lucchesi was the leading scorer in the game, scoring 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field, including 6-of-9 from three-point range.
However, Lucchesi was the only consistent weapon for the Tigers, as the rest of the team hit on just 12-of-47 shots from the field (25.5 percent) in the game. Ralph Mata had 13 points, while Jared Boone added 10.
Latez Williams (Sr., Hamilton, Ohio) and Bellard (Jr., Beaumont) each had 17 points to lead St. Mary’s. Williams added five rebounds and four assists. Bellard had six rebounds and four assists. Two other players reached double figures for the Rattlers: Robert Owens (Jr., Oakwood) with 16 points and Marcus Hill (Sr., Longview) with 11 points.
As a team the Rattlers shot 49.1 percent (27-55) from the field and outrebounded the Blue Tigers 51-34 in the game.
With the win the Rattlers have won two straight and improved to 8-6 overall and 2-0 in Heartland Conference play. Lincoln lost its fourth straight game and fell to 4-8, 0-1. St. Mary’s will return to action on Saturday when they host Newman University in a Heartland Conference matchup starting at 7:30 p.m.