San Antonio – All week long, St. Mary’s sophomore point guard Liz Boyd felt good about the Lady Rattlers’ chances entering Saturday’s game against Arkansas-Fort Smith.

She believed in the game plan, liked the tempo in practice and had confidence in her teammates’ general approach to things.

Then came the game, where things didn’t come together as anticipated in a 69-44 loss at Bill Greehey Arena.

“I felt really good before this game,” said Boyd (So., San Antonio), who scored 10 points. “I thought the team had felt good too because we had a good week of practice. We were hanging with them, but by the second media timeout our intensity started going down. We tried doing different things to get a spark, but it just wasn’t happening.”

The Rattlers (14-11, 6-3 in Heartland Conference) tried tinkering with a variety of lineups, but nothing seemed to create the spark Boyd said was missing.

DeAnna Patterson (Jr., Converse, Texas) scored 10 points, while Kristen Williams (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) added nine rebounds in defeat.

“It felt like we weren’t synching with each other,” Boyd said. “I thought we were going to win. Then we just come into the game and didn’t show any of the work we’ve been doing.”

St. Mary’s was competitive early, trailing 8-7 five minutes into the game. But the Lions then went on a 25-8 run, opening up a 33-15 lead with nearly four minutes left in the half.

It proved too much of a deficit to overcome, as St. Mary’s struggled to chip away at the 36-20 deficit it carried into halftime.

The Rattlers, who have already clinched a spot in the Heartland Conference Tournament, will round out the regular season when they host Texas A&M International at 2 p.m. Saturday at Bill Greehey Arena.

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