Loyola pulls away from Florida Memorial Thursday

MONTGOMERY, Ala.  – The Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team made the trip to Montgomery, Alabama, for the SSAC/Sun Conference Challenge, taking down Florida Memorial, 68-57, on Thursday in the first of two games. The Wolf Pack Pack (2-0) will play their third game in three days, matching up with Southeastern (Fla.) at 1 p.m on Friday. 
 

Loyola scored the first eight points of the game on its way to a 15-11 lead after the first quarter. Alexis Babineaux scored twice, and Morgan Hervey and Lizzy Ratcliff added made shots during that opening run in the first four minutes. The Lions cut the Wolf Pack lead down to 9-8 over the next couple of minutes, but scores by Caitlin Travis and Ratcliff, as well as free throws by Babineaux and Ratcliff helped close out the opening frame. 
 

Ratcliff and Babineaux added to their point totals to start the second quarter, 19-13, and Travis converted an and-1 opportunity midway through to give Loyola a 22-13 advantage. Florida Memorial, however, scored the next 12 points to take its first lead of the game, 25-22. Ratcliff tied it with a 3-pointer, but the Lions took a 30-27 lead into the break. 
 

Florida Memorial got another long run, this time opening up the second half by scoring the first 10 points to push ahead 40-27 through the first two minutes. Travis ended that run with a free throw and Bria McClure nailed a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to single digits, 40-31, then scores by Travis and MG Lymon made it a six-point game, 42-36. McClure and Hervey helped cut it to two, 42-40, then Deniya Thornton scored her first points to tie at 42-all with less than three minutes left in the quarter. In total, Loyola used a 20-3 run to take a 47-45 lead into the final 10 minutes. 
 

After Florida Memoria immediately tied it to start the fourth quarter, Thornton hit a 3-pointer to jump back ahead, 50-47. Thornton actually scored the first 12 points of the quarter for the Wolf Pack, making it a 59-55 lead, then McClure pushed that lead to 61-55 with less than three minutes remaining. Four free throws by Alissa O'Dell and three more points from Thornton iced the game for the Wolf Pack 
 

Pack Facts

• Deniya Thornton took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 of her total 20 points in the period. She also finished the game with nine rebounds and four steals, leading the Wolf Pack in both of those categories as well as scoring. 

• Before the fourth, Lizzy Ratcliff paced Loyola's scoring. She finished with 11 points, second on the team. 

• Bria McClure led the Pack in assists for the second game in a row, recording three total dimes. 

• Loyola took advantage of extra scoring opportunities on Thursday, winning the second-chance points battle 15-6. 

• The Wolf Pack's record against Florida Memorial is now 3-0. Each win against the Lions has been by double digits. 

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