 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
Going into the Feb. 11 game against the conference-leading Detroit Titans, the Loyola women’s basketball team was riding a two-game home losing streak.
Unfortunately, Detroit extended the Ramblers’ streak to three games. However, on the following Saturday, LU pulled out a come-from-behind victory against the Wright State Raiders to break their home slump.
Wright State came to the Gentile Center on Saturday looking for redemption from this season’s previous overtime loss to Loyola. The Raiders started the game by hitting their first seven shots and eventually opening up a 10-point lead (23-13). Senior guard Maggie McCloskey then hit her second shot beyond the arc, which was followed by three successful free throws from fellow senior Keisha Collins, to make it 23-19. But regardless of LU’s scoring spurt, WSU maintained their composure and took a 41-32 lead into halftime.
In the opening minute of the second half, McCloskey knocked down her fifth three-pointer of the night. After a Wright State lay-up, McCloskey sunk another trey, which was followed up by a scoring spurt of six straight points by her teammates, which gave them a lead of 45-44.
The lead didn’t last long though, as the Raiders regained the lead after scoring six straight points of their own.
From that point on, the Ramblers began their steady climb back into the game. Down by five with just over five minutes left, the three-point machine known as Maggie McCloskey hit another three to make it 57-55 in favor of Wright State.
Then, a WSU turnover led to Collins cashing in on a mid-range jumper. A second consecutive turnover by the Raiders resulted in yet another three-pointer by — you guessed it — McCloskey. Her eighth three of the game gave LU a three-point lead with 3:41 remaining (60-57).
The lead reached as many as five, but Wright State still managed to tie it up with 57 seconds left in the game (66-66). With 10 seconds left, VanBogaert had a chance to give her team the lead, but missed a free throw. Wright State had one last chance to win, but failed to do so. As a result, the game went into overtime for the second time this year.
Loyola faced little resistance in the extra time played. McCloskey cashed in on her ninth three-pointer, tying her career high, while Collins hit all four of her free throws. The final score was 77-68.
The team’s head coach, Eric Simpson, thought LU’s defense propelled them toward victory.
“They [Wright State] were super physical. They were playing harder than we were,” said Simpson. “But we did a lot better job in the second half. We started guarding them better and getting some stops.”
Not only was the defense solid, but the offense was too. McCloskey and Collins both had career nights. McCloskey finished with 27 points (nine threes), while Collins put up a career-high 11 assists, along with 15 points, giving her a double-double.
Just two days before, LU took on the Horizon League leading Detroit Titans.
Like the game against Wright State, Loyola found themselves down by double figures early, this time because of cold shooting. By the time the first 10 minutes had elapsed, the Ramblers had scored only two points (missing 17 of 18 shots). Additionally, Detroit picked apart the LU defense, putting up 21 points.
Loyola didn’t quit, however, and they slowly climbed their way back into the game.
VanBogaert led the Ramblers and, at one point in time, scored eight straight points for LU.
It looked like they’d take only an eight point deficit into halftime, but Detroit’s Lauren Allen heaved up a three-pointer as time expired and banked it in, extending the Titans’ lead to 11 (38-27).
Sophomore guard Ellen Ayoub kicked off the second half with a three-pointer. Just a minute and a half later, Ayoub nailed another one, cutting the Titan lead to five (38-33). Despite their hot start, Loyola couldn’t keep it up, and Detroit opened their lead back up to double-digits for most of the second half. But again, the Ramblers fought back late in the game. Sophomore guard Katie Kortekamp hit a shot from three-point land to cut the lead to six, and a lay-up by senior center Shannon Finnegan cut it down to four (58-54) with just under two minutes left. Any hopes to tie it were crushed, however, after a couple of Detroit free throws were made on the next possession.
The Titans hit three more fromthe charity strike to officially put the game out of reach (final score: 63-56).
VanBogaert finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Collins scored 10 points and dished out seven assists.
Despite the loss, Simpson praised his team’s effort. “We have to give credit to it our girls — they kept battling,” he said.
“For the couple years I’ve been involved in this program, they’ve always been real hard-workers and they want to win. They’re competitive kids and I think they’ve done a great job showing determination when battling back into games.”
This weekend, the 13-11 Ramblers travel to Wisconsin for rematches against Milwaukee and the nationally ranked Green Bay Phoenix, both of whom defeated the Ramblers already this season. Loyola came up just short of defeating the Phoenix earlier this year, losing by a score of 65-63. Milwaukee, on the other hand, enjoyed a larger victory over LU with a final score of 80-66.
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