Box Score Franckiewicz's 20 points propel Loyola past the Eagles on Saturday afternoon. Wolf Pack are now 20-5 overall and 12-3 in the SSAC.
Coming off a two-game conference road trip in Georgia, the No. 24 Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team returned home to First NBC Court on Saturday afternoon to take on the Eagles from Faulkner University.
Eyeing its 20th win of the season, the Wolf Pack handled Faulkner 79-54 in a game that the home team never trailed.
The Eagles knotted the game at 5-5 in the first before buckets by Paige Franckiewicz (FR/Slidell, La.), Di'Mond Jackson (JR/Baton Rouge, La.), Megan Worry (SO/Houston, Texas) and Meghan Temple (SR/Houston, Texas) pushed the Wolf Pack advantage to 18-5 heading into the second frame.
Loyola kept the momentum rolling in the second by scoring the opening seven points of the period to extend the cushion to 20 at 25-5. The home team maintained a comfortable lead for the remaining minutes to close out the first half up 37-20.
The home team managed to extend its lead to as many as 28 points in the third quarter following another long ball from Franckiewicz to put the Wolf Pack up 62-34 with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter. A layup by Faulkner's Katie Key ended the third to bring the score to 62-36 in favor of the home team.
The fourth quarter proved more of the same for Loyola as the team maintained a 20-point lead for a majority of the frame. When the final buzzer sounded, the Wolf Pack took home the 74-59 victory to improve to 20-5 overall and 12-3 in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).
Loyola went 30-of-67 (44.8%) from the field and 13-of-28 (46.4%) from downtown on Saturday. The Wolf Pack's bench unit outscored Faulkner 32-12 and Loyola converted 22 points off of 12 Eagle turnovers.
Franckiewicz led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. Lead guards Kylah Jones (SR/Houston, Texas) and Zoie Miller (JR/Frisco, Texas) both chipped in 10 points for Loyola while Jackson ended the game with six points to go along with a game-high eight assists and seven boards. Temple added eight points and six rebounds in the victory and Kaila Anthony (FR/Pflugerville, Texas) contributed eight points and four boards off the bench.
With her six rebound against the Eagles, Temple became Loyola's all-time leader in career rebounds with 928 in just 121 games. The Houston native entered the season as the program's career leader in blocks and currently sits with a Wolf Pack best 113 rejections in four years.
Kayla Tillman paced the Eagles (16-10, 8-8 SSAC) with 19 points on 5-of-14 shooting in 26 minutes played.
The Wolf Pack returns to First NBC Court on Thursday, Feb. 16, to square off against the University of Mobile at 5:30 p.m.
