Loyola led briefly as Trenese Smith hit a jumper in the lane 15 seconds into the contest to give the Wolfpack a quick 2-0 lead.
Trevecca answered with a 12-0 run as Jennifer Bogar’s put back on the ensuing Trevecca possession tied the game at 2-2. After a Trenese Smith miss on the Loyola end, MyRanda Wright gave the Trojans their first lead with another bucket in the paint to make the score 4-2 at the 18:50 mark.
Trevecca led the rest of the way and enjoyed their first double digit advantage as Christian Gibson’s jumper at the 15:38 mark made the score 12-2.
Following Gibson’s bucket, Loyola ran off six unanswered to cut the advantage to 12-6 as a Trenell Smith stole a pass from K.C. Van Atta and took in the length of the floor for a bucket with 13:05 to play in the half. It was as close as the Wolfpack would get the rest of the way.
The Trevecca lead grew to as many as 17 points with another Bognar bucket inside that gave the Lady Trojans a 37-20 advantage with 1:44 remaining in the first period. Bognar finished with 12 points in the first half as the Trojans led 39-23 at the break.
Three minutes into the second half, Trevecca opened a 22 point lead- their largest in the game- with Bognar scoring another bucket in the paint.
Loyola outscored the Trojans 15-4 over the next nine minutes with Trenell Smith hitting a pair of free throws to cut the margin to 11 points to make the score 53-42 with 8:55 to play.
TNU responded by scoring 11 unanswered with Van Atta hitting a pair of three pointers during the run. Her last capped the spree to give the Lady Trojans a 64-42 lead with 3:56 remaining.
Trenelll Smith led Loyola (28-7) with 20 points on 6 of 19 shooting from the field. Trenese Smith had 14 points on the afternoon. She finished the season with the Loyola single season scoring record with 690 points on the season.
Senior Kiely Schork completes her Loyola career as the all-time leading scorer in Loyola history with 1,839 points. The four-time All-GCAC player had three points in the season finale on Saturday.
For Trevecca Nazarene (22-11), Jennifer Bognar led with 20 points. She was 10 of 17 from the field and grabbed a team high nine rebounds. Mariska Reed finished with 13 points and K.C. Van Atta came off the bench to score 11.
Loyola shot 22.7% from the field and 15.2% from distance- both season lows. The Lady Trojans converted 43.3% of field goal attempts and 31.3% from behind the arc.
The appearance in the Elite 8 is the furthest that Loyola has advanced in the NAIA National Tournament in the program’s history. Loyola also eclipsed program records for wins and highest ranking as the Wolfpack won 28 games and were ranked 15th in the final NAIA poll.
Comments from Loyola head coach DoBee Plaisance: “In the beginning of the game, they just jumped out big on us and it was difficult to recover. We were getting plenty good shots today. They just were not falling, but t was not due to a lack of effort. It just wasn’t meant to be. Trevecca did a great job executing their game plan. One game does not define our season. Our kids have given and sacrificed since August and have demonstrated that we are a team of character. I am so proud of our team and what they have accomplished this season.”
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/
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