MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (November 23, 2019) – Despite a career-high of 30 points to go along with a career-best 17 rebounds from sophomore Taniya Patrick, the Webber International University women's basketball team's upset effort over St. Thomas University fell short as the Warriors lost by a score of 77-75 on Saturday afternoon inside the Fernandez Family Center in Miami Gardens, Florida.

In the last meeting between the two teams back on February 9 of last season in Babson Park, Florida, Webber did pull off the upset and won 88-69 over St. Thomas, which like it is now, was receiving votes in the NAIA Division-II Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll.

This time around, Webber led by six at 70-64 with a little bit over six minutes left to play following six straight points from RayGene Garner.

However, after St. Thomas came back to tie it at 70-70 with 3:21 left to play, the Warriors went ahead again by two possessions after a steal by Amaya Lasley led to a layup by Patrick and an offensive rebound and 3-pointer by Garner made it 75-70 with just under two minutes remaining.

Unfortunately, back-to-back 3-pointers over the next minute by the Bobcats put the home team up one at 76-75 with 1:04 on the clock.

Then, after two missed layups by Webber, St. Thomas' Keiana Brooks missed her second of two free throw attempts to give the Warriors a chance down two at 77-75 still with 20 seconds left.

From there, the Warriors missed two more layups and had an offensive rebound every time, but were unable to get a final attempt off following an inbounds play with only a few ticks remaining.

"We played our hearts out, but we just needed a couple more shots and a couple of more calls to go our way," said Webber's Head Women's Basketball Coach Grady Morrell.

One of the biggest differences in the game in the Bobcats' favor was their 12 3-pointers compared to five for the Warriors. St. Thomas hit four 3-pointers to keep the game tight in the third quarter, and then hit the two big ones late in the fourth quarter to go from down five to up one and take advantage of the seventh and final lead change of the game.

In the end, Patrick finished with her 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting while also adding two blocks. Garner added 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting and had 11 rebounds. It was Patrick's second double-double of the season and was the first for Garner.

Emmarrie Carmen was also very close to having her second double-double in a row as she finished with nine points and nine boards while LeAndra Franklin and Breyonna Reed both had five assists as well, and Lasley had a career-best four steals.

With the two teams tied at the half at 42-42, Patrick already had 19 of her 30 points on 8-of-11 shooting and also already had seven rebounds.

Additionally in the first half, Webber shot a very strong 51.4 percent (18-35) from the field while both teams shot exactly 50 percent from 3-point range. However, that changed a little bit in the second half as the Warriors only made two 3-pointers the rest of the way compared to six in both halves for St. Thomas.

The Warriors also held a 12-1 advantage in second chance points at the intermission and were outscoring the Bobcats 28-14 in the paint to that point. That theme continued in the second half as Webber outrebounded St. Thomas 48-29 overall, including 24-9 on offensive rebounds, outscored St. Thomas 25-4 in second chance points and won the battle in the paint 42-26.

Webber fell to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in The Sun Conference with the loss while St. Thomas improved to 4-2 overall, 2-1 in the TSC and 2-0 at home.

Now, after a week off from action for Thanksgiving break, Webber will return home for a nonconference game as the Warriors host undefeated Edward Waters College at 5 p.m. on Monday, December 2, inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center in Babson Park, Florida.