No. 14 Loyola battles back to beat Stillman

NEW ORLEANS – For the second straight game, the Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team trailed by double digits in the second half. This time, though, the 14th-ranked Wolf Pack completed the comeback by defeating Stillman College, 59-52, in The Den on Thursday. 
 

Loyola (17-2, 11-1 in SSAC) maintained its position atop the Southern States Athletic Conference standings, and it'll host second-place Mobile on Saturday at noon, which has been dubbed the SSAC Women's Basketball Game of the Week. 
 

Both teams saw a slow start to the contest with the score reading 6-6 more than halfway through the opening frame. Sandra Cannady scored Loyola's first points, then Lizzy Ratcliff made two free throws and Taylor Thomas scored to bring the game to the 6-all tie. After the media timeout, Stillman scored seven straight to take a 13-6 lead, but five points by Cannady and a bucket by Caitlin Travis in the final couple of seconds made it a 13-13 game by the end of the quarter. 
 

Sydni Tangle and Bria McClure opened the second quarter with a couple of 3s, however, the Tigers took a 22-21 lead by the six-minute mark. The Tigers maintained the one-possession lead until they went up by six, 29-23, with a little more than a minute left in the first half. Thomas would end up making a couple of free throws to bring the score to 29-25 by halftime. 
 

The Wolf Pack shot the ball better in the third quarter compared to the first two frames, and they held Stillman to 25 percent from the floor to tie the game at 42-42 heading into the fourth. Deniya Thornton, Cannady and Thomas combed to make four free throws to get the score to 34-29, Stillman, but the Tigers were able to stretch their advantage out to 10, 39-29, by the halfway point of the quarter. Tangle made a shot and a free throw, 39-34, and a 3-pointer by Morgan Hervey brought it to 30-37 with 3:45 left in the third. Hervey and O'Dell each made field goals down the stretch to even the game with 10 minutes to play. 
 

A Libby Thompson 3 gave the Wolf Pack their first lead since early in the first quarter, then after Stillman went back ahead, Cannady made it a 47-46 Loyola advantage with five minutes to go. Stillman led 52-48 at the 3:30 mark, but a couple of old-fashioned 3-point plays for Loyola gave it the lead for good. First, it was Cannady converting the and-1 opportunity, followed by a hard-fought and-1 by Thomas after an offensive rebound. Thomas scored again, 56-52, with 90 seconds left, and free throws by Thomas and Travis ended any hope for Stillman. 
 

Pack Facts

• Loyola remains undefeated in The Den against Stillman, improving to 6-0 against the Tigers in the University Sports Complex. 

• Taylor Thomas filled up the box score, putting up 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and five steals. 

• Thomas is now among the top 10 on Loyola's all-time scoring list. She now has 1,378 points in her career.

• Sandra Cannady picked up her ninth double-double of the season, leading the Pack with 16 points and 10 rebounds. 

• Loyola players combined for 11 steals, the eighth time this season that the team has reached double digits in that category.