Box Score The Wolf Pack used a strong second quarter to take down Middle Georgia State Thursday in the quarterfinals of the SSAC Championship
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The second-seeded Loyola Wolf Pack found themselves in a hole early in Thursday's quarterfinal contest with the seventh-seeded Middle Georgia State, but a strong second-quarter put the Wolf Pack ahead for good. Loyola earned a 91-75 win over the Knights to play in Friday's 5 p.m. semifinal game, and it'll play the winner of Martin Methodist-Faulkner.
Middle Georgia State led for the first 11 minutes of the game, quickly jumping out to a 21-14 lead after the first quarter. Six different Wolf Pack players scored in the opening frame, but no player had more than three points. Kate Petrovic got on the board first for Loyola, then Paige Franckiewicz drilled a 3-pointer to cut MGA's lead to 6-5. The Knights extended their lead to 10-5 then 14-5 before Breyah Richardson stopped MGA's run with a made basket.
Trailing 21-12, Loyola ripped off 10 straight points from the first to the second quarter, tying the game at 21-21 before taking the 1-point lead. Tay Cannon got the run started with the last basket of the first, and Paige Wascom and Taylor Thomas combined for eight points after a 3 from Wascom and two field goals and a free throw by Thomas.
MGA briefly retook the lead, 25-24, but Loyola scored the next 11 points to push ahead 36-25. Cannon made two shots during that run, and Kaila Anthony, Kennedy Hansberry and Franckiewicz all hit baskets, too. Franckiewicz added two more 3-pointers to lead the Pack with 13 points in the first half, as Loyola scored 34 second-quarter points to take a 48-34 lead into the break.
Loyola would go on to outscore MGA 18-17 in the third quarter and 25-24 in the fourth en route to the win. It's largest lead of the game came three minutes into the third quarter when Anthony hit one of her two 3-pointers. Those two 3s were back-to-back shots as well, coming in a 30-second span. The Wolf Pack made four 3-pointers in the frame, as Petrovic started the third with one and Wascom ended a late MGA 8-1 run to close out the third with Loyola leading 66-51.
Hansberry and Anthony each had six points and Wascom and Franckiewicz added 3-pointers in the fourth to hold the Knights at bay. MGA never could get to within 11 points of the Pack, as the two teams traded baskets to close out the game.
SSAC Women's Basketball Championship Schedule
Live Video | Bracket | Live Stats
Wednesday, March 4
Game 1 | #8 Stillman (Ala.) 59, #9 Brewton-Parker (Ga.) 44
Game 2 | #7 Middle Georgia State 73, #10 Florida College 56
Thursday, March 5
Game 3 | #5 William Carey (Miss.) 53, #4 Mobile (Ala.) 52
Game 4 | #1 Bethel (Tenn.) 71, # 8 Stillman College 49
Game 5 | #2 Loyola (La.) 91, #7 Middle Georgia State 75
Game 6 | 8 p.m. | #3 Martin Methodist (Tenn.) 78, #6 Faulkner (Ala.) 58
Friday, March 6
Game 7 | 1 p.m. | #5 William Carey v. #1 Bethel
Game 8 | 5 p.m. | #3 Martin Methodist v. #2 Loyola
Saturday, March 7
Championship | 4 p.m. | Winner Game 7 v. Winner Game 8
On the team's response to Middle Georgia's hot start:
"At this time of the year, you know that people are going to come out and play hard; none of us have anything to lose. So you just have to come out and play hard. And (Middle Georgia) came out fired up and ready to go. They hit two threes early and we didn't look as ready to go as they did, so we had to call a timeout and get ourselves together. I think we had a terrific second quarter defensively and offensively. But give Middle Georgia a lot of credit. They did a lot of things that they needed to do to be in this game."
On what was working defensively:
"The last time we played them at home, we pressed them and forced turnovers, so coming into today we felt like we could do that again. Statistically, they don't shoot the three that well, I think they probably did today, so you take those chances and see what you get. But we were able to turn them over, and unfortunately, we did not defend the three like we should have, but that was our game plan going in, just to guard them, and to try to stop Joy Sadler, who's really great for them on the inside and outside."
On what Kaila Anthony does for the team:
"She does so much. She scores, she defends, she creates opportunities for other people. She just does so much for us. She's such a heady player, such a smart player, probably one of the best competitors you'll ever see, and the things that need to be important are important for her. She's a special player, and we're lucky to have her."
On the outlook for the rest of the tournament:
"Hopefully we got all of the free throw misses out of our system, because I think we missed enough for the entire tournament. So hopefully moving forward, we'll be shooting about 100 percent from the free-throw line. I think we're done with first-game jitters. This team is always focused coming into this. They know what it means, and they know how to get there. One game at a time. We'll see who we're playing tomorrow, put a game plan together, and hopefully be ready for them, too."
Pack Facts
Loyola's 34 second-quarter points were the most the team has scored in a quarter all season. It was the fourth time the Wolf Pack has scored in the 30s as well.
Loyola is 14-1 in the last 15 SSAC tournament games.
With four steals in Thursday's game, Kaila Anthony jumped two spots in the Loyola career record book to seventh all-time with 192 steals.
Paige Franckiewicz scored 16 points, giving her 1,224 for her career. She's now 10th in Loyola history behind her teammate Anthony.
Chelsea Gray tied a career-high with seven rebounds Thursday.
Taylor Thomas notched three steals against MGA, which was the fifth time this season the freshman had at least that many steals.
With two blocks, Kamille Cooper tallied her fifth multi-block game of the season.
You can keep up with the Pack by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.
