William Carey hangs on against Wolf Pack

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – In a battle of teams receiving votes in the NAIA Top 25 rankings, the Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball started the New Year with a close loss to William Carey, 62-59, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Loyola (8-7, 2-2 in SSAC) will travel to Blue Mountain Christian on Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. 
 

Loyola got off to a 5-0 start after forcing Carey to go 0-for-3 from the field with a couple of turnovers. Alissa O'Dell got the Pack on the board first, then Deniya Thornton converted an old-fashioned 3-point play. The Crusaders, however, made six of their next seven shots to go on a 13-0 run and push ahead 13-5 with three and a half minutes left in the opening frame. A Kate Thompson bucket ended that run, but WCU still led 18-7 after the first 10 minutes of play. 
 

William Carey was held scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter, but the Wolf Pack could only put up two points during that time to make it an 18-9 contest. After O'Dell and Libby Thompson made free throws, MG Lymon hit Loyola's first field goal, and a buzzer-beating field goal by Thornton made it a 10-point deficit at the break, 28-18. 
 

The Wolf Pack turned a good start to the second half into a 34-34 tie with 3:33 left in the third quarter. Lymon hit both of her shots from beyond the arc during that 16-6 run and O'Dell chipped in five points to even the score. William Carey, though, used a 10-2 run to close out the quarter to take a 44-36 lead into the final period. 
 

Scores by Joclyen Wyatt and Alexis Babineaux got the fourth quarter started for Loyola, but again, the Crusaders answered with an 8-0 run, 53-40. O'Dell then scored five quick points, including an and-1, to end that WCU run halfway through the final frame. O'Dell and Caitlin Travis made back-to-back baskets, 55-49, then five more points from Travis trimmed the score down to 58-54 with 1:44 left on the clock. 
 

Kate Thompson made it a two-point game, 58-56, with less than a minute to go After a WCU missed shot, Loyola missed a potential game-tying score with 11 seconds left to help Carey hang on to the win. 
 

Pack Facts

• Alissa O'Dell was the game's leading scorer, putting up 18 points plus nine rebounds. 

• Caitlin Travis finished with 13 points while going 3-of-3 on three-pointers. 

• MG Lymon led the Pack with six assists while also scoring 10 points.

• Kate Thompson had seven assists and seven rebounds while blocking a game-high three shots. This was her second game of the season with three blocks. 
   

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