Box Score Wolf Pack suffer first loss of the season, will head across the street on Thursday for the annual Battle of Freret Street against Tulane.
Coming off a historic victory over crosstown rival Xavier University (La.) on Thursday, the No. 20 Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team returned to The Den on Saturday morning to welcome Southeastern University to campus for a battle of unbeaten NAIA programs.
Both teams in Saturday's contest had some prestige on the national level as the Wolf Pack entered The Den at No. 20 in NAIA Division I while the Fire came to the Crescent City as the No. 4 team in the NAIA Division II.
Saturday's game felt more like a prizefight than an early-season hoops game with both squads exhibiting their physical brands of basketball – which led to one player fouling out while five others logged four fouls in the exchange. Despite the physical nature of the game, Saturday's affair came down to shooting touch and in the end, Southeastern just had more than the host Wolf Pack were able to muster. Fueled by 47% shooting from and floor and 40% from beyond the arc, the visiting Fire managed to escape The Den with a convincing 80-63 defeat of the No. 20 Wolf Pack.
Loyola drops to 1-1 on the year with the loss while SEU jumps to 2-0 following the big victory.
The visitors started the game up 4-0 before a triple by Megan Worry (JR/Houston, Texas) brought Loyola within one, 4-3, at the 8:15 mark. The Fire stretched the advantage to as large as six with three minutes to play but the Wolf Pack would answer back with a 10-2 run to end the opening frame with the home team up 20-19.
SEU started the second by scoring the first eight total points to retake the lead at 27-21 with just under eight minutes to play in the first half. The Fire slowly started to tack on more space between itself and the Wolf Pack, building a lead as large as 12 points down the stretch. Trailing 40-28, Zoie Miller (SR/Frisco, Texas) connected on a long three to bring the score to 40-31 before SEU's Halee Printz converted a layup with just 18 seconds remaining to put the visitors up 11 (42-31) heading into halftime.
Both teams shot similarly from the field in the third quarter (SEU: 7-13 | Loyola 6-15) but it would be the differentials in free throws that would really make an impact in this pivotal 10 minutes. The Fire converted seven of 10 free throws in the frame while the Wolf Pack managed to not even log an attempt which was one of the major reasons the scoreboard read 65-46 in favor of the visitors heading into the fourth.
SEU remained in the driver seat for the entirety of the fourth frame as the Fire were able to maintain a double-digit cushion throughout the duration. When the final buzzer sounded, Loyola found itself on the wrong end of an 80-63 defeat at home.
Zoie Miller led the Wolf Pack in scoring for the second-straight game, dropping in a team-high 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go along with four assists and two steals. Paige Frankiewicz added 15 points in 27 minutes while Megan Worry contributed eight points, eight rebounds and a team-high two blocks in the loss.
The Fire's Ana Richter's 17 points led five SEU players in double figures.
The Wolf Pack return to action on Thursday, Nov. 2, with an exhibition game against Tulane University.
