November 27, 2010
Evansville, Ind. – Not even those famously tiring Thanksgiving meals could slow down the St. Mary’s Lady Rattlers this holiday weekend.
Led by Mareta Bailey’s team-high 16 points, the Rattlers rolled to a convincing 63-53 victory over Bellarmine University (Indiana) on the first day of the USI Thanksgiving Classic on Saturday.
One of several Rattlers to dominate off the bench, Bailey (Sr., Grand Prairie, Texas) shot 7 for 14 from the floor and hauled in six rebounds. Also coming off the bench, standout forward Kristen Williams (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) scored 12 and grabbed eight boards to help the Rattlers improve to 4-2 on the season.
Bench scoring and points in the paint were two constants for the Rattlers, who thoroughly dominated both categories. St. Mary’s had 44 bench points compared to Bellarmine’s 6, while the Rattlers also outscored Bellarmine in the paint 36-24.
St. Mary’s also led in points off turnovers (27-20), second-chance points (15-9), fastbreak points (10-2).
The Rattlers barely trailed in the contest, falling behind 2-0 early but never trailing again. They led by as many as 13 points.
Mallory Moeller (Sr., Geronimo, Texas) scored a season-high nine points since recently wrapping up her volleyball season, while Liz Boyd (So., San Antonio) added eight points off the bench. Nicole James (Jr., Indianapolis) chipped in a team-high four assists.
The Rattlers will wrap up the tournament against host school Southern Indiana University on Sunday.