Los Angeles, CA - The Saint Mary's women's basketball team finished the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a 67-64 victory over Loyola Marymount.  With the victory, the Gaels posted the best West Coast Conference record since the 1989-90 season (12-2).  Senior Jontelle Smith had a team-high 19 points while Louella Tomlinson fell one rebound shy of a double-double, finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, and five assists.        

"I am extremely proud of the entire team, coaches, staff and our fans for working so hard all season long.  Today's game was a great test of our will, we definitely stepped up our defense in the second half," said head coach Paul Thomas.

Saint Mary's (21-8, 12-2 WCC) took the early lead, going up 11 (16-5) in the first five minutes of the game.  A 3-point basket by LMU's Kavita Goss started a 9-1 run to get the Lions (12-16, 5-9 WCC) within two with 10:30 to play.  A Louella Tomlinson jumper ended the run, but LMU would tie it up a minute later, 21-21. 

The score would get knotted up two more times before the Lions would take the lead on a jumper by Alex Cowling with 3:42 left in the half.  LMU would go up five (36-31) to end the first half.

In the first half, the Gaels and Lions had almost identical shooting percentages with SMC posting 42.9 percent (12-for-28) and LMU with a 42.4 percent (14-for-33). 

The second half was a much different story as the Gaels were 47.8 percent from the floor and the Lions dropped to a 26.8 shooting percentage.  SMC opened up the second half with back-to-back baskets then regained the lead on a 3-point basket by Jontelle Smith (38-36) with 18:38 to play.

A 10-3 SMC run put the Gaels up nine (48-39), capped by a basket by Jasmine Smith from beyond the 3-point arc.  Both teams traded baskets before LMU's Young knocked down her fifth 3-point basket to get them within three with 11:15 to play.  Young finished with a game-high 23 points, knocking down 5-of-7 from 3-point land.

With 2:45 to play, the Gaels went up six (59-53) on a layup by Tominson, which would be the final SMC field goal of the day.  The Gaels would go 8-for-10 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes of play to secure the victory.

The Lions trailed by three when Jo. Smith was trapped and called for traveling as the horn sounded. The referees convened and ruled there to be four-tenths of a second remaining. Out of timeouts, the Lions lined up out of bounds and ran a play for Young, who got a great look from the corner but the ball slid around all parts of the rim before dropping out.

Jo. Smith had a big senior night from the 3-point line, knocking down 5-of-10 SMC 3-pointers.  Ja. Smith finished the day with 15 points while Ashlee Smith was strong on the boards, bringing down nine rebounds and adding six points on the offense. 

The Gaels travel to the bright lights of Las Vegas, NV for the Zappos.com West Coast Conference Championship and will begin play on Sunday, March 7 as the No. 2 seed.