Saints Battled No. 25 Gold Nuggets

SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 11, 2025) – The Our Lady of the Lake (OLLU) women's basketball team welcome the 25th-ranked Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) to Mabee Gymnasium on Saturday for a Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) contest. The Saints played the Gold Nuggets tight before falling 76-59 to move to 6-11 overall and 4-10 in RRAC play.

In the opening quarter, the Gold Nuggets got the scoring started on their second possession of the game and would go up 4-1 in the early goings. After a 6-0 run that began with back-to-back buckets from Alexandra Westerdijk Martin and ended with a Carlea Owens layup, the Saints took a 7-4 lead over the undefeated XULA squad. After a Gold Nugget layup to make it 9-8 in favor of the Saints, both teams went on a scoring drought that lasted over two minutes. XULA ended the drought with a triple to take an 11-9 advantage. With just under a minute to play in the quarter, Isabella Jaramillo converted a layup to make it an 11-all game, but XULA would score with 28 seconds left to take a slim 13-11 lead after one quarter of action.

At the 9:22 mark of the second frame, Owens converted an and-one opportunity to give OLLU a one-point edge over the Gold Nuggets. The lead did not last long as both teams were trading points. Midway through the quarter, Julia Plata knocked down a three, giving OLLU the 21-19 lead. It was back-and-forth for the duration of the quarter and XULA finished the first 20 minutes of action with a 28-25 advantage.

Coming out of the break, Plata evened things at 28 but the Gold Nuggets followed up with a triple of their own to regain the lead, 31-28, just to have Plata knock down another shot from beyond the arc to tie the contest at 31. After an 8-2 run, XULA led 39-33, which was either teams largest lead of the game at that point in time. With three minutes to play in the third quarter, XULA saw its first double digit lead of the game. They would go into the fourth quarter with a 10-point cushion and eventually close out the game, winning 76-59.

Desiree Rogers finished the game with 11 points and seven rebounds while Plata scored 13. Eight of the 10 players who saw the floor for the Saints recorded a basket in the loss.

The Saints shot 41 percent from the field and 41 percent from long distance.

OLLU will hit the road next week for a pair of RRAC contest starting Thursday, January 16 at Jarvis Christian University.

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