Late Run Falls Short in Ramblers’ Loss to Dukes

The Loyola women’s basketball team dropped a 75-70 contest Feb. 15 to Duquesne University, who overcame a 41 point Rambler onslaught in the fourth quarter. Despite the loss, the game was significant for the program, as they recorded 1,663 attendees — the highest attendance in history outside of field-trip days, according to Loyola Athletics.

Graduate Naelle Bernard led all scorers with 25 points — a career high — against her former team, while on the other side of the court, the Dukes had four players record double digits.

Dusquesne opened the game after graduate guard Gabby Hutcherson won the initial tipoff and third-year guard Andjela Matic drained a three following empty offensive possessions by both sides.

Bernard got her first points of the night by converting two 3-pointers. Third-year guard and forward Emma Theodorsson added a baseline layup for an early 8-3 lead before first-year guard Mackenzie Blackford dropped in a 3-pointer for the Dukes prior to a timeout.

A layup by third-year guard Jerni Kiaku and a Matic three gave Duquesne the lead back. Graduate forward Sitori Tanin completed a turnaround jumper, but Hutcherson extended the Dukes’ lead to 14-10 with a three. 

Guth highlighted Kiaku’s tying layup and said the team’s struggles with consistent offensive production arise from the manner in which the team carries itself.

“When we came out and it was 8-8 in the game, it’s got to be an understanding of how we’re gonna build on that lead,” Guth said. “There’s not a magic potion, the same offense we’re running that we score 41 in one quarter that we’re running in the first. So that’s kind of where we are — it’s the intentionality of the aggressiveness at which we’re running it.”

Bernard and Hutcherson each traded 3-pointers before graduate guard Thoranna Kika Hodge-Carr finished a cross-court pass with a layup to end the first quarter.

A corner three from second-year guard Rosalie Mercille tied the game at 17 to start the second quarter. Kiaku hit a three in response, starting a two-minute drought which was eventually snapped by fourth-year guard Jess Finney’s layup. 

Duquesne leader and fourth-year guard Megan McConnell scored five straight — a three and two free throws — while Blackford netted another 3-pointer to give the Dukes a nine-point advantage.

A three by second-year guard Audrey Deptula was immediately negated by three straight two-point plays by Hutcherson. A 3-pointer by Finney with just over a minute and a half remaining was the final play of the half for a 34-25 Duquesne lead.

A physical start to the second half was capitalized on by traded layups between McConnell and first-year forward Brooklyn Vaughn. Across a physical three-minute period full of fouls and shoves, Blackford, fourth-year forward Kiandra Browne and Matic each converted a 3-pointer, giving the Dukes’ a 45-27 lead.

For only their fourth point of the quarter, Tanin grabbed an offensive rebound and finished a jumper in the paint. Loyola squandered their next six offensive possessions, while second-year guard Raymi Coueta scored two 3-pointers and a layup for the Dukes’ 53-29 lead at the end of the third quarter.

By the time the third quarter buzzer sounded, Duquesne, who averages 10.2 made 3-pointers per game, had already got off 32 attempts. Guth said poor defensive play outside of the three-point line played a crucial part in Dusquesne’s third quarter success.

“They got a lot more open threes that didn’t go down from tonight where we got lucky on those,” Guth said. “Our understanding of scrambling out of those situations has to be better, and then we’ve got to be better of beating some of those screens earlier and then getting back to our gaps. We just didn’t do a great job at executing our game plan.”

The teams opened the fourth quarter trading layups by Tanin and second-year guard Reina Green. Hodge-Carr added a lone free throw after being fouled mid-layup attempt.

Two drives into the paint with layups by McConnell were met with layups by Tanin and Theodorsson. Loyola followed the early exchanges by kicking off a brief seven-point run, as Theodorsson had a successful trip at the line, Deptula hit a baseline jumper and Bernard drained a three to bring the Ramblers within 16.

After Kiaku snuck in a layup, Deptula sparked a 12-5 run for the Ramblers with a 3-pointer, two offensively contested layups and two free throws. Bernard added a jumper while Kiaku hit a lone free throw, McConnell pushed inside for a layup and Matic had a successful trip at the line to maintain a 66-54 Duquesne lead.

Tanin continued the offensive push by floating in a layup alongside another from Bernard, while McConnell managed a lone free throw. The Dukes were forced to call a timeout after two successful trips to the line by Blackford were immediately negated by layups from third-year guard Kira Chivers and Bernard on following Loyola possessions.

Up just nine points, the Dukes began to pull away after Blackford made a single free throw and Matic converted two of her own to make it a 74-62 game. A three from Bernard was followed by McConnell converting one of two after being strategically fouled.

Even with Bernard managing to squeeze off a layup with 10 seconds remaining and a tightly contested three in the last possible second after a Duqesne blunder, the Dukes walked away with the 75-70 victory.

Despite commending the team’s fourth quarter performance, Guth said the early mistakes — found largely in Loyola’s 23 turnovers — proved decisive.

“I’m very proud of our team’s fourth-quarter fight in trying to put us in a position to beat a talented Duquesne team,” Guth said. “What it comes down to, for us, is valuing the possession so we get more offensive opportunities”

The team will get a chance at more opportunities Feb. 19 when they take on the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. The game is set for a 5 p.m. start and can be streamed on ESPN+.