WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. – The No. 10 seed Loyola University New Orleans women's basketball team saw its season come to an end on Friday, losing in the first round of the NAIA National Championship Tournament to No. 7 seed Shawnee State, 70-62. The Wolf Pack finished the 2024-25 campaign with an 18-12 overall record and the program's 12th straight trip to the national tournament.
Shawnee State built a 6-0 lead through the first three minutes of the game, then Caitlin Travis made a field goal and a free throw to get the Pack on the board, 6-3. MG Lymon and Kate Thompson made shots on back-to-back possessions to tie it, 8-8, and Alissa O'Dell put the Pack on top, 10-8, with two and a half minutes left in the opening quarter. The Bears would eventually take an 11-10 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Joclyen Wyatt flipped the lead briefly in Loyola's direction at the beginning of the second quarter, 12-11, then a couple of offensive rebounds led to a Deniya Thornton score to give Loyola the lead once again, 14-13. Wyatt had another score and Lymon followed that up with a 3 to make it a multi-possession advantage, 19-15, and Alexis Babineaux and Lymon took turns giving Loyola its largest lead of the game at that time, 23-17. O'Dell continued to be a problem in the paint and offensive glass, scoring twice down the stretch to bring the score 27-22 at the break.
Shawnee State cut it to one in the opening minutes of the second half, 29-28, but O'Dell, Lymon and Thornton all scored to push it back out to a six-point lead, 36-30. The Bears, again, brought their deficit down to one, but they failed to make another field goal for the next three minutes of game time. Thornton hit a 3 and Travis made a shot during that time, but Shawnee State had a good close to the third quarter to send the game into the fourth with a 43-41 score.
Wyatt hit a couple of 3s in the beginning of the fourth quarter, the second one giving the Pack a 51-48 lead. Even after Travis made a shot to put Loyola up five, the Bears kept finding the bottom of the net on their end of the floor to eventually go in front by five, 58-53, with three-plus minutes remaining. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Wyatt and a bucket from Thornton evened the game, Shawnee State finished the game on a 12-4 run to earn the win.
Pack Facts
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MG Lymon led the Wolf Pack with 15 points in the last game of her senior season. Lymon went 3-of-6 from three-point range, her second game with three triples. She also had 4 assists to finish with a team-high 115 assists this season.
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Lymon's career free throw percentage of 78.7 is tied with Presley Wascom for best career free throw percentage by a Wolf Pack women's basketball player.
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Alissa O'Dell had her team-high eighth double-double of the year, 10 points and 11 rebounds.
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Joclyen Wyatt scored in double figures in each of the team's last three games of the season. She put up 13 points Friday.
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Caitlin Travis also scored in double figures in the last three postseason games. She had 11 vs. Shawnee State.
First & Second Round Schedule - Williamsburg, Ky.
Friday, March 14
First Round | #2 Cumberlands def. #15 Eastern Oregon, 62-51
First Round | #7 Shawnee State def. #10 Loyola, 70-62
Saturday, March 15
Second Round | 5 p.m. CDT | #2 Cumberlands vs. #7 Shawnee State
Winner advances to the Round of 16 in Sioux City, Iowa
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