Loyola led the entire game and opened an early 9-2 lead with Schork hitting two three pointers in the first two minutes of the game. 

Point Loma, the top seed in Loyola’s quarter of the tournament, rallied and cut the lead to one point as Kerra Sutton-Wodarski converted a pair of free throws with 16:53 left in the half to make the score 9-8. 

Schork responded with her third three pointer of the contest to spark a 24-8 Wolfpack run culminating with a pair of free throws by Trenese Smith at the 8:22 mark to give Loyola a 33-16 advantage.  It would be the Wolfpack’s largest lead of the game.

Later, Point Loma reduced the lead to four points in the half when Sutton Wodarski hit her only three pointer of the game with 46 seconds remaining in the half. 

Loyola’s Catherine Blanchard scored her only points of the contest with a triple in the closing seconds of the half to give Loyola a 41-34 lead at the break.

In the second half, Loyola enjoyed double digit leads on three occasions.  The first came on the Wolfpack’s first possession of the half.  Trenese Smith took a pass from sister Trenell Smith to hit one of her three 3 pointers to give the ‘Pack a 44-34 lead. 

Two minutes later, Schork gave the Wolfpack their last 10 point lead with another bucket from beyond the arc to extend the advantage to 55-45.

Down the stretch, the Sea Lions could get no closer than four points.  The last occasion came with 36 seconds to play when Katie Hilbelink drove the lane for a lay-up to make the score 66-62.

Point Loma immediately fouled on the inbounds and sent Trenese Smith to the line.  The two time GCAC player of the year hit both free throws to push the lead back to six points. 

Hilbelink missed a jumper on the next Point Loma possession with Trenese Smith grabbing the rebound.  Hilbelink fouled Smith and sent the LaPlace native to the line again.  Smith calmly sank both free throws to preserve the win and send the Wolfpack to the program’s first NAIA Elite Eight appearance.

Schork tied a season high with 21 points, converting 7 of 13 from distance.  Trenese Smith had 18 points and made seven of eight free throws, including all six that she attempted in the second half.

Also for Loyola (28-6), Trenell Smith, who was the tournament’s leading scoring after the first round, had 14 points and nine rebounds.  Christine Mainguy grabbed a game high 12 rebounds.

For Point Loma (29-3), Sutton-Wodarski led with 22 points on 7 of 15 shooting from the field.  Angela Manjarrez had 15 points and Hilbelink finished with 13 points.

Despite having a significant height disadvantage with Point Loma having four players over six feet, the Wolfpack outrebounded the Seal Lions 43-37.  Loyola shot 19 of 24 from the charity stripe for a clip of 79.2%.  PLN was 10 of 14 for 71.4% from the stripe.

Loyola’s appearance in the Elite Eight is the first for a Louisiana school and Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Team in over 20 years with Dillard making the NAIA quarter finals in 1988.

The victory over a team ranked No. 3 in the NAIA National Poll is the highest ranked club that Loyola has beaten in the program’s history. 

Loyola, a four seed, will take on six seed Trevecca Nazarene of Nashville, Tennessee, Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Oman Arena.  Trevecca was ranked No. 20 in the final NAIA women’s basketball poll with the Wolfpack coming in No. 15.  The Trojans defeated Langston 78-66 on Friday morning.  Trevecca upset Southern Nazarene 85-56 in the first round on Thursday.

Comments from Loyola head coach DoBee Plaisance: “I felt we played with a tremendous amount of intensity and we’re peaking at the right time.  Especially on the defensive end, we’re playing with passion and great execution.  We made many stops on the defensive end.  Obviously, we were at a disadvantage with our size, but I felt our defensive intensity would get us through and it did.  We were able to able to penetrate and kick the ball out to our shooters on the offensive end of the floor.”

Follow all the tournament action at:
http://naia.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/103106aac.html

Helpful links:
http://wolfpack.loyno.edu
http://wolfpack.loyno.edu/giving
http://gcaconf.com
http://naia.org
http://loyolamaroon.com
http://blog.nola.com/wolfpack/

Subscribe to all the latest Wolfpack news at: http://wolfpack.loyno.edu/packbackers_newsletter.php

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