San Antonio – Darren Lee scored 23 points, while Nick Morey had his third straight double-double, leading St. Mary’s University to a convincing 72-66 win over 24th-ranked Harding University on the final day of the River City Classic Men’s Basketball Tournament Sunday night at Bill Greehey Arena.

Lee (Jr., Stockton, Calif.) hit on 7-of-13 shots from the field and 8-of-8 from the free throw line to score a season-high 23 points. He also pulled down four rebounds and dished out four assists. Morey (Sr., Belpre, Ohio) made 5-of-13 shots from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line to score 18 points. He also pulled down 15 rebounds for the second straight game. The only other Rattler to score in double figures was Curtis Mitchell (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis.) with 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.

The Rattlers led by eight points at the break, but quickly expanded the lead into double figures and took their biggest lead of the game at 16 points, 55-39, on a Marlon Smith (Fr., San Antonio) jumper with 9:58 left to play. But Harding rallied with 13-2 run to close to within five points at 57-52 with 5:06 left to play. But St. Mary’s came back and expanded the lead to as much as 10 points down the stretch for the win.

One night after going nine minutes with a point to start the game against the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the Rattlers wasted no time in taking a big early lead against Harding. St. Mary’s went on a 17-4 run to start the game with Lee leading the way. He scored eight points during the run to give the Rattlers the big early advantage.

With the win the Rattlers evened their record at 5-5 on the season, while Harding fell to 9-2. St. Mary’s will be off until Dec. 29 when they travel to San Angelo to face Angelo State at 7 p.m.

Standings

Arkansas Tech 2-0
Midwestern State 2-0
(#5) Central Oklahoma 1-1
(#24) Harding 1-1
Nebraska Omaha 1-1
Northwest Missouri State 1-1
St. Mary’s 1-1
Southeastern Oklahoma State 1-1
Eastern New Mexico 0-2
(#16) Ouachita Baptist 0-2

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