Schreiner women hold off 4th quarter rally, advance at SCAC tourney

SAN ANTONIO — It was three-quarters of great basketball, followed by a perilous fourth quarter, but somehow, the Schreiner Mountaineers women’s basketball team held off St. Thomas in the quarterfinals of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament, 61-54.

The Mountaineers squandered a 20-point lead at the end of the third quarter Friday afternoon and then faced a fourth-quarter onslaught by St. Thomas. The Lions solved Schreiner’s relentless press and efficiently whittled the Mountaineers’ lead with a 14-3 run.

Still, the victory advances the Mountaineers to a 2 p.m. Saturday SCAC semifinal against No. 2-seeded Colorado College at Trinity University in San Antonio. Colorado College has beaten Schreiner twice this season.

“The important thing is we kept it together,” said Schreiner coach Stacy Stephens, whose team improved to 17-9. “We got the win at the end, and I’m just really proud of how hard the team fought.”

The Mountaineers came out hot on Friday, racing to a 38-19 lead at halftime. Schreiner continued the torrid pace with leads as big as 26 points in the third quarter.

With a 51-31 lead at the end of the third quarter, the Mountaineers looked like they would cruise into Saturday’s semifinals. However, the Lions had other ideas, breaking the press and getting key 3-pointers to knock the lead down to three points with 3:24 left in the game, 54-51.

But the Mountaineers kept finding ways to stave off disaster — Demauria Miles, held to just 10 points, hit a pair of free throws to give Schreiner a cushion. Plagued by fourth-quarter turnovers, the Mountaineers caught breaks in the game’s waning seconds when the Lions couldn’t convert and turned the ball over.

Schreiner committed 26 turnovers — one of the few times the Mountaineers were plus turnovers in a victory — and then shot 25% in the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter performance starkly contrasted with the first three, when the Mountaineers shot better than 40%. Andrea Salazar led the Mountaineers with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Josline Hernandez scored 12.

“We’re really connected, and we’ve over the season we’ve learned to
adapt to everyone’s playing style,” Salazar said of the Mountaineers.

Standout guard Elisa Peralta scored on a fourth-quarter layup that helped snap the Mountaineers out of their funk. However, Peralta was limited to seven points and fouled out in the fourth quarter.