SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 1, 2015) – The shots mostly weren't falling for Oklahoma Christian on Thursday afternoon against St. Mary's (Texas), but thanks to some solid free-throw shooting and one sensational stretch, the Lady Eagles found themselves ahead of their regionally ranked foes in the second half.

Then, after rallying from a 17-point deficit to take a three-point lead, the shots again stopped falling, the turnovers began building and OC couldn't hold its advantage. St. Mary's pulled away over the final 11 minutes to post a 68-51 win in a New Year's Day contest at Bill Greehey Arena.

Dezirae Elias scored 23 points while Morgan Pullins tied a single-game school record with 20 rebounds to go with her 15 points for St. Mary's (8-3, 2-1 Heartland Conference), which entered the semester fifth in the South Central Region rankings and has spent time in the national NCAA Division II top 25 this season.

Coach Stephanie Findley hopes her Lady Eagles can bottle what went right during a 20-2 run that spanned the halves. OC (3-8, 0-3) went just 3-of-26 from the field in the first half, but led 41-38 with 11:23 left after Jasmine Hinton fed Aisha Martin for an easy back-door layup.

"It's a little frustrating to finish up with that type of score, but I did tell the girls that I thought there were some good things, especially there early in that second half that we need to build on," Findley said. "We need to build on those good things, the things that we did right in that eight-minute span.

"We fought hard. We're just, right now, not getting it together on offense. I thought we did a pretty good job defending them. We knew those two girls were going to give us trouble inside. We got a lot of tips, a lot of deflections on balls because we knew where it was going, but we just couldn't convert on our offensive end."

The Lady Eagles finished 12-of-49 from the field (24.5 percent) and for the first time in recent memory failed to hit a 3-pointer, finishing 0-of-8. Seven of OC's 21 turnovers came during the final nine minutes as the Lady Eagles tried to stave off the final surge of St. Mary's.

The Rattlers held a 47-38 rebounding advantage, mostly due to Pullins and Kiara Etheridge, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

OC didn't have a single player reach double digits. McKenzie Stanford came closest, with nine points and nine rebounds. Sydney Hill had eight points and Hinton and Jordan Gorham (making her first career start) had seven points each. OC's bright spot came at the free-throw line, as the Lady Eagles went 27-of-35 (77.1 percent).

"We weren't hitting any threes early, so we told them, 'They are at least giving you the call when you go to the rim, so let's try to go to the rim.' The girls did a good job of that," Findley said. "We ended up knocking down free throws better than we have been. If we can just keep building on that kind of stuff, it's a long season. We've just got to build on the positive things."

Elias hit her first five shots as St. Mary's built its lead and her layup with 5:01 left in the first half gave the Rattlers a 30-13 bulge. After Pullins scored 2:14 before intermission, the Rattlers led 32-17, but that was their last basket for more than 10½ minutes.

OC cut the gap to 32-21 by halftime, then started the second half right with a three-point play by Jasmine Hinton just 16 seconds in. Gorham hit two free throws, Kaitlyn Morris hit two more after St. Mary's coach Jason Martens was called for a technical foul to pull OC within 32-28.

After a pair of free throws by Etheridge, OC scored the next nine points, with a layup by Gonzaque with 14:42 left giving the Lady Eagles their first lead at 35-34. Martin's basket with 11:23 left made it 41-38, but OC managed only two more baskets.

"The tide changed at that point," Findley said.

OC will continue its road trip on Saturday afternoon, playing at Texas A&M International.