NEW ORLEANS – The Texas State women's basketball team (4-6) was defeated by a score of 89-62 against St. Mary's (6-4) on Friday afternoon at Devlin Fieldhouse.

Senior guard Toshua Leavitt led the Bobcats in scoring with a team-best 18 points. After scoring two points in a tough first quarter, she rallied to chart 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the final 30 minutes of play. Leavitt regained her 3-point form following a 2-for-11 performance at Missouri on Monday night to make 4-of-7 attempts against the Gaels. She added two steals in 34 minutes of action.

Junior guard Bailey Holle tallied a career-best 14 points in the loss on 5-of-14 shooting from the field. The scoring outburst marked her second career double-figure performance with the first coming against St. Thomas 17 days ago. Holle connected on 3-of-6 shots from behind the 3-point arc and chipped in a team-best three steals for the Bobcats.

Junior guard Brooke Holle rounded out Texas State's double-figure scorers with 10 points. She has reached the 10-point plateau for the fifth consecutive contest. Holle had a tough afternoon shooting, making 3-of-12 attempts from the floor, but she kept her perfect free throw shooting mark intact with a 4-for-4 day.
 
"We struggled to get stops in transition in the second quarter," head coach Zenarae Antoine said. "We gave up too many good looks from the 3-point line to a good 3-point shooting team."

St. Mary's scorched the nets from the opening tip, making 14-of-28 attempts from behind the 3-point line. The 14 makes established the most made triples from a Bobcat opponent in the history of the program. Freshman guard Sam Simons led the charge for the Gaels, scoring a game-high 21 points off the bench. She converted 5-of-9 3-point attempts a grabbed three rebounds. Sophomore forward Madeline Holland added 11 points and a game-best eight assists for the Gaels.

Texas State withstood an early run from St. Mary's and trailed by just six points at the 7:37 mark in the second quarter after Leavitt knocked down her first 3-point field goal of the afternoon. The Gaels bounced back to score 15 of the game's next 17 points to carry a 19-point lead into the halftime break.

St. Mary's garnered the first possession of the third quarter and scored to increase the lead to 21-points. Texas State answered with a pair of 3-pointers from Ba. Holle and Leavitt to trim the deficit to 15 with 90 seconds gone in the third.

For the next four minutes, the game was played evenly. St. Mary's mounted the second large run of the game, this one to the tune of 15-2 in the final 4:44 of the third frame to blow the game wide open. Texas State trailed 65-38 entering the fourth quarter. The margin never fell below 22 points and expanded to as many as 31 points before settling at the final score of 89-62.

Up next, the Bobcats will continue the 2018 Tulane Classic against either Old Dominion or Tulane. Tip will come at noon on Dec. 22 from Devlin Fieldhouse on the campus of Tulane University.

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