Box Score The Wolf Pack outscored Mobile 11-5 in the final four minutes of the game to edge out the Lady Rams in a contest that featured nine ties and 16 lead changes.
NEW ORLEANS – Saturday's Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Game of the Week lived up to the hype, with the No. 24 Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team defeating the University of Mobile in a close one in The Den, 74-69.
It's the fifth-straight win for the Wolf Pack (10-1, 5-1 SSAC), who now have a 2-1 lead in the season series against Mobile (9-5, 5-4 SSAC). The Pack went undefeated on the five-game conference homestand.
The beginning of the contest was, like Friday's matchup, tightly contested, with three lead changes and two ties occurring in the first five minutes. Halfway through the opening period, however, Mobile seized momentum. With the Wolf Pack leading 11-10 at the five-minute mark, the Lady Rams scored 11-straight points to take a double-digit lead.
The visitors led 26-16 at the quarter break.
The second frame contained much of the same, with Mobile holding a steady lead through the first five minutes. With 4:23 left until halftime, the Wolf Pack trailed 32-22, but put together an 11-point run of their own, mounting a comeback which saw the home team regain the lead, 33-32, by the 2:37 mark of the quarter.
Sandra Cannady was key in the second quarter, scoring eight in the final five minutes of the first half. Mobile had added a few more points, but Presley Wascom matched them with a three-pointer near the end of the half, tying the score 36-36 heading into halftime.
Loyola came out of the break shutting their opponents down, opening the second half on a 7-0 run. Three-point shooting let Mobile back into the game, however, tying the score 43-43 by the 5:31 mark of the quarter. Neither team was able to pull ahead for long in the quarter, with the teams once again tied at 55-55 going into the final 10 minutes.
The squads continued to battle back-and-forth for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, with Mobile barely going ahead 64-63 at the 4-minute mark. Loyola then pulled away with an 11-2 run, backed by a strong performance at the free throw line in crunch time, going up 74-66 with half a minute left to play.
Mobile hit a three-pointer with 17 seconds left, but by that time, the Wolf Pack built enough of a lead to carry them toward the finish line. In a game that featured nine ties and 16 lead changes, the Pack ended up with a 74-69 victory.
After the five-game homestand, the Wolf Pack will now hit the road for four games away from home, starting with a matchup with William Carey in Hattiesburg, Miss. on Tuesday, February 2, at 5:30.
Wolf Pack Head Coach Kellie Kennedy
"Presley Wascom has had a really great weekend. It wasn't really from the three-point line today, either. She took a lot of twos that I don't think (Mobile) expected. We shot the free throw really well. In a close game like that, it's really crucial that we do that. Again, I thought we played a total team effort. A lot of people contributed to that. We had four people in double figures. That's always huge. We cut down our turnovers today, which I thought was really important, especially because Mobile played really well and really hard. Mobile shot the ball well, but we cut down our turnovers, we had 14 assists, and we rebounded the ball better. We just did what we needed to do down the stretch to win a game. It was a close, really good basketball game. I was really proud of our group. It's hard to put together two really good games back-to-back like that."
Pack Facts
Presley Wascom once again led the Wolf Pack in scoring. She had 19 points, making two triples and going 5-6 at the free throw line. She also contributed five rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.
As a team, Loyola made 19 of its 23 free throws for the game, including 6-of-7 in the final minute and a half.
The other three players scoring in double figures for Loyola were Kennedy Hansberry (13), Taylor Thomas (12), and Sandra Cannady (10).
Hansberry also dished out a game-high five assists, while Thomas had four dimes. The pair also had two steals each. Jazmene McMillan led the team in steals, however, with three takeaways for the game.
Tera Snell led the team in rebounds with seven. She also had eight points, three assists, and a steal.
Loyola's 11 turnovers are the lowest number since the team had just six against Southeastern Baptist on November 21.
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