Box Score The Pack take on the No. 3 seed Bethel in tomorrow's semifinal game at 1 p.m.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team opened up the Southern States Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship with an 80-53 victory over Blue Mountain College Thursday afternoon, advancing to the semifinals.
"Once you get to tournament play, it's a new season," said head coach Kellie Kennedy. "You know that everybody is coming to play and everybody's playing for something."
For the No. 2-seeded Wolf Pack (23-5, 13-2), it was the second game against the seventh-seeded Lady Toppers (3-20, 3-13) in just the past week, with the Pack taking both games by a wide margin.
"It was not a week ago that we had matched up against Blue Mountain at home," Kennedy said. "So in terms of preparation, our kids kind of remembered what they needed to do. We didn't really change a lot in terms of our game preparation and how we were going to go out and defend them."
Recent First-Team All-SSAC selection Di'Mond Jackson (SR/Baton Rouge, La.) couldn't be stopped early in the contest, as she found her way into the paint for four buckets, scoring the first eight points of the game for the Pack. Knowing that Loyola had inside scoring threats, the Lady Toppers came out with a zone defense, forcing the Pack to take outside shots.
Armed with one of the better three-point shooting offenses in the NAIA, however, the Pack were able to break through the Blue Mountain defense. Paige Franckiewicz (SO/Slidell, La.) hit the first of her many three-point shots with 6:14 left in the first quarter.
The score was still fairly close up until the 2:43 mark of the first quarter, where Blue Mountain's Matavia Cox hit one of her two three-pointers of the game. Over the next five minutes, however, Loyola scored 13 unanswered points to take a 34-17 lead with just under two minutes gone in the second period.
The Lady Toppers were able to end Loyola's hot stretch with a layup and subsequent three-pointer, but the Wolf Pack once again quickly put together a run, with Franckiewicz and Zoie Miller (SR/Frisco, Texas) combining for three made triples over the next two minutes for nine unanswered points.
"We were really able to shoot the ball well," Kennedy said. "When you shoot the ball well in this kind of setting and against a zone defense, you're going to make some things happen"
Loyola took a 48-26 lead into halftime, outscoring Blue Mountain 21-9 in that second quarter.
The second half started similarly to the first, with Jackson opening up the period with a layup, this one coming after a battle of a possession where she grabbed two offensive boards. The ensuing few minutes would not go as smoothly as the first half however, as the Lady Toppers would not be put away quietly.
Blue Mountain outscored Loyola 16-4 in the opening seven minutes of the second half, cutting the Loyola lead to 10 points at 62-52. The Wolf Pack would respond, ending the quarter on a 10-0 run to extend their lead back to 20 points. The stretch was fueled once again by three-point shooting, as Franckiewicz and Megan Worry (JR/Beaumont, Texas) each knocked one down from long range in the final two minutes of the quarter.
"Any time we can shoot well," Kennedy said, "it makes us harder to defend because we do pretty well getting to the rim."
The hot shooting from deep continued in the 4th quarter as Kaila Anthony (SO/Pflugerville, Texas) converted on her two long-range attempts while Franckiewicz picked up her fifth triple of the game. The defense also locked in, never allowing the lead to fall below 18 points.
Presley Wascom (FR/Denham Springs, La.) added the exclamation point near the end of the game, hitting a three-pointer to make the score 80-53, which would remain until the final buzzer.
Franckiewicz and Miller led the Pack in scoring, each putting up 15 points. Franckiewicz did so shooting an efficient 5-7 from beyond the arc. Miller also picked up a game-high six assists and four steals to go along with her 15 points, which brings the SSAC's Player of the Year winner to sixth-most in a season in program history with 548 points thus far.
Anthony scored 14 points, eight of which came in the final quarter, to go along with six rebounds and three steals. Jackson also collected six boards to go along with her 12 points and three assists. The six rebounds for Jackson bring her to 545 career rebounds, which is eighth-most in program history.
Blue Mountain had just one scorer in double figures, with Matavia Cox putting up a game-high 22 points.
Next up for the Wolf Pack is the No. 3 seed, Bethel University, whom the Pack defeated 57-55 in a tough contest on Feb. 10th at The Den.
"It's just a fun, competitive game," Kennedy said about the upcoming Bethel matchup. "We know each other's teams pretty well, I think we match up pretty well on both sides. It's just going to be a fight and we're going to have to execute and play well."
The SSAC Championship semifinal game against the Lady Wildcats begins at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
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