San Antonio – Turnovers remained the enemy for the Lady Rattlers in a 65-57 loss to Northeastern State on Friday, but the basket did make friends with Jackie Edwards, who had a season-high of 21 points to go along with Liz Boyd’s season-high 13 points in an at-times impressive showing that St. Mary’s could not quite cap off with a victory.

The St. Mary’s women’s basketball team (0-4) came out solid and led Northeastern State (2-1) 9-0 thanks to a nine-point run to start the game, but trailed by 10 by the end of the half. The Rattlers struggled against the sharp-shooting Riverhawks throughout the second half as well, unable to pull through their early-season kinks.

“(In the second half) we just stopped talking on defense and executing our offense,” says Boyd, who hit 5-of-13 from the floor. “I think we lost focus.”

But the Rattlers weren’t done with the Riverhawks just yet.

St. Mary’s returned back to the team that started the game and led Northeastern State on another nine-point run with five minutes left to play, and had hopes of closing the gap on the Riverhawks. But a series of turnovers, fouls and on-the-money shots from Northeastern State gave the Rattlers their forth loss of the season at 65-57.

“By the time we picked it up it was too late in the game already; we were down by too much,” Boyd said.

The Rattlers had 15 turnovers for the game that led to 15 points from Northeastern State. Despite the skill of the Riverhawks, who banked 24 points off 3-pointers, head coach Jason Martens says it’s up to the Rattlers to learn how to be successful.

“The word of today is ‘consistency,’ said Martens. “There are times where we look really good and there are times where we just really struggle.”

Edwards (So., San Antonio) has remained among the top scorers for the Rattlers since the start of the season and Boyd (Jr., San Antonio) found her groove in the game tonight.

“I’ve been silent for a few games but tonight I felt good before the game,” Boyd said, “and I’m ready to start scoring like this every game.”

Despite Boyd breaking out as the starting point guard this season and two new faces, Edwards and Morgan Pullins (Fr., Franklin, Michigan) flashing big-time potential, the Rattlers have struggled to find the chemistry on the court needed to have a successful season. But while St. Mary’s may still be working out the kinks, they definitely don’t fall short on skill and have the potential for the successful season they all hope for.

“We need to figure it out,” said Martens.

St. Mary’s has the next chance to work out its first win of the season against Southeastern Oklahoma State at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bill Greehey Arena.

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