Women's basketball's 17-18 squad to be inducted into Hall of Fame

NEW ORLEANS – Kellie Kennedy's 10th season in charge of the Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball program didn't just bring a third run under her command to the national tournament's round of 16. It also brought a third conference championship in four seasons as Loyola maintained its reputation as a perennial contender in women's basketball. 
 

Standout performances by seniors Zoie Miller and Di'Mond Jackson helped the 2017-2018 Wolf Pack women's basketball team go 26-6 for the campaign (13-2 in conference play). The team is only one of four in program history to win more than 80% of its games, and it tied the prior campaign's program-best of 25 regular-season wins. 
 

As Kennedy recalls, Miller hadn't even started for Loyola prior to that season. But now having played her way into the starting five, she averaged 19.3 points per game – the fourth-highest mark in program history – to help vault her to a first-team All-American selection, which was the only such accolade won by a Wolf Pack student-athlete that academic year. 
 

Miller also set a program record for most field goals in a single game during a 79-68 victory over Mobile at home and was named the player of the year among Jesuit schools nationwide, regardless of level. 
 

Meanwhile, Jackson earned recognition as the conference's defensive player of the year as well as an All-America honorable mention after averaging 8.3 rebounds per game and 4.8 assists per game, the program's fourth-highest for a season at the time of the 2017-2018 team induction. 
 

Miller, Jackson and their teammates were tough to visit, going 13-1 at home. They were tough to host – going 11-5 on the road – or face at neutral sites, where they won both of their contests. 
 

During the campaign's climax, Loyola defeated Martin Methodist (now the University of Tennessee Southern) 66-53 in the conference championship tournament title game. Both Jackson and Miller earned spots on the all-tournament team, with Miller earning most valuable player honors. 
 

In the opening round of the ensuing national tournament, Kaila Anthony poured in 24 points to help the Wolf Pack clinch an 89-86 victory over Texas' Our Lady of the Lake. The Wolf Pack advanced to the round of 16 by enduring 10 lead changes, nine ties and five minutes of overtime as the Wolf Pack set a record for most points scored in a national tournament contest. 
 

The Wolf Pack's run ended with a 77-65 defeat in the round of 16 to California's Westmont College, who was a number one seed. 
 

Kennedy now jokes "maybe it was stupid on my part" to have waited so long to start Miller. But once given the chance, Miller "just led us in such a great way," the coach said. "It's almost like she had a chip on her shoulder – she was just so hard to defend and could do so many things on both ends of the court."
 

As for Jackson, Kennedy counted her among the "grittiest, toughest kids" she's ever coached.
 

Kennedy, in retrospect, doesn't recall expectations for the 2017-2018 team being particularly high, and she acknowledges that she wasn't sure how far her squad would progress. 
 

"I don't know that people thought we would be as good as we were," Kennedy said. "But we were tough on defense, and we could shoot, and we could do many different things that we were able to, you could say, overachieve a little bit."
 

But now that team can dump the overachiever label and replace it with one that reads: Wolf Pack Hall of Fame inductee.