LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Saint Mary's Women's Basketball Wrap-Up | St. Mary's College | SMC Moraga


Tomlinson (2) grabbed the WCC career rebounds record in the WNIT loss Photo Tod Fierner

Saint Mary's women's basketball entered the season with high expectations. The Gaels were predicted to finish West Coast Conference play in second place, which they accomplished, with a 19-13 overall record. With the second place finish the team received an automatic berth to the Women's National Invitational Tournament for the second year in a row.

Saint Mary's played host to visiting Nevada in the opening round of the WNIT on Thursday, March 17. The Gaels were unable to take advantage of any Irish Luck on St. Patrick's Day and lost a heartbreaker, 62-65.

The teams traded points for most of the game. The tenth and final tie came at 59-all with 8:30 to play. The Gaels built a 62-59 lead with less than four minutes to play but Nevada stormed back to recapture the lead and hold on for the win.

Junior redshirt guard Jasmine Smith, a first team all-WCC selection, had 18 points and junior guard Alex Carbonel added 15 points, ten of which came in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting.

Senior forward Louella Tomlinson notched 19 points and ten rebounds in the win. With those rebounds Tomlinson became the career all-time rebounder for Saint Mary's and for the West Coast Conference; she grabbed 1,122 rebounds. She also had 303 rebounds in the season. Tomlinson is only the second person in school history to record at least 300 rebounds in a season.

"Rebounding wasn't my forte coming in but it was something I wanted to get better at and I think this is a testament at how much I have improved since I have been here," Tomlinson said of her performance.

Tomlinson, a first team all-WCC selection, also leaves with the all-time career scoring record with 1,848 and all-time blocked shots record with 667. The all-time blocked shots record is a NCAA record. Tomlinson started and played in every game of her career.

Head coach Paul Thomas said of Tomlinson, "I don't want to sensationalize this, but with the records she has... if she is not the best player to have played here, she is definitely one of the top two or three."

The Gaels lose Tomlinson, Leanna Richey and Suzie Davis to graduation. They retain WCC all-freshman selection Danielle Mauldin and Smith.