BELOIT, Wis. (Duhawks.com) – The Loras College Women's Basketball team (2-1) used a 55 point second half and stingy defense to throttle the Beloit Buccaneers (1-2) on Wednesday night by a score of 94-66. Junior
Kaitlin Phillips and sophomore
Naomi Phillips paced the offense, scoring 14 points each to help the Duhawks improve to 2-1 on the season.
Beloit held the edge in efficiency, shooting 48 percent from the field, but Loras held the advantage at halftime leading 39-38.
The teams traded baskets for the opening minutes of the second half before the Duhawk defense took control. Loras held Beloit scoreless for nearly five minutes behind a plethora of stellar defensive plays, highlighted by a steal by senior
Victoria May. After forcing the turnover, May ran the length of the court and was rewarded for her defensive play when sophomore
Emma Bradford found her on the block for an open layup. The basket pushed Loras' lead to 13 with just under 11 minutes to play.
Suffocating defense by the Duhawks forced miscues by the Buccaneers as Loras extended its lead to 24 after sophomore
Kathleen Cabrera slipped a bounce pass through the lane to sophomore
Lori Obendorf for an open basket.
From that point on the Duhawks cruised to a convincing 94-66 win behind their strongest shooting performance of the season (51.2 percent from the field).
Game ChangerMidway through the second half, Loras held Beloit scoreless for nearly five minutes while they rattled off 11 straight points. The run put the Duhawks in front 63-49.
Key StatSolid bench play helped the Duhawks battle through some early foul trouble. Loras' bench outscored Beloit's 43-13 in the game.
Notables- Freshman Brooke Prososki-Green tallied the first points of her Loras career, finishing the game with five points, four assists, and one rebound
- Freshman Lauren Stanich scored her first points of the season in the win. She recorded five points, two rebounds, and an assist in 12 minutes of play
- Sophomore Kelly Barzowski recorded her first points of the season, scoring three points and adding one rebound
- Following Wednesday's win, the Duhawks have won consecutive games by 28 points
- Loras' +20 rebounding margin is their best of the season
- The Duhawks shot a season-best 52.1 percent from the field
Quotables
Justin Heinzen, head coach"After a rough first half we really focused and came out strong in the second half. When were able to do that we were very good. Our focus going forward is stringing together two solid halves."
"With UW-Oshkosh coming up, we'll have to keep the score low. They're a talented team, we can't get in an offensive race with them. They will be the best defensive team we've seen so we'll have to grind out a lot of possessions. The keys for us is strong defense and keeping them off the free throw line. When we foul we eliminate any flow."
Next UpThe Duhawks host No. 5 UW-Oshkosh in their home opener on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 3 pm in the Athletic & Wellness Center. In last season's match up the Titans topped the Duhawks, 76-67. As a junior,
Victoria May led all scorers with 22 points, shooting 8-of-9 from the field.
