February 5, 2009
DALLAS – St. Mary’s University committed 21 turnovers and shot just 33.3 percent in the second half as Dallas Baptist University rallied from a first half deficit to defeat the Rattlers, 68-59, in men’s basketball action Thursday night.
St. Mary’s came out of the locker room red-hot for the first 30 minutes of the game and led 57-46 with 9:10 left to play. However, the Patriots finished the game by outscoring the Rattlers, 22-2. In the first half St. Mary’s made 13-of-23 shots (56.5 percent) from the field and 6-of-7 shots (85.7 percent) from three-point range to take a four-point lead into the locker room. But fouls and turnovers helped DBU shut down the Rattlers down the stretch.
Darren Lee (Jr., Stockton, Calif.) led the Rattlers with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-9 from three-point range. Nick Morey (Sr., Belpre, Ohio) also reached double figures with 16 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Ronald Tata (Sr., Houston) came off the bench to score 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field.
With the loss the Rattlers fell to 10-10 overall and 5-4 Heartland Conference, while DBU improved to 17-5, 7-4. St. Mary’s will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Austin to face St. Edward’s University in the second game of a women’s/men’s doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m.