March 4, 2023 – Another defensive slugfest went the way of the 14^th-ranked Trine University Thunder on Saturday night as the 15^th-ranked Loras College women's basketball team saw its season come to an end with a 60-54 defeat the Lillis Athletic & Wellness Center.

The Duhawks (24-5) made just five field goals in the second half of its NCAA Tournament second round matchup against the Thunder (23-6) as Trine's patented, smothering defense held the Duhawks to just 54 points. Trine entered the NCAA Tournament as one of the top defenses in the country by holding its opponents to an average of 52.0 points per game.

Pressure began to build for head coach Justin Heinzen's team as the Duhawks played as well as they could have hoped in the first half. Loras led by two at the end of the first quarter, then found their shooting stroke in the second quarter to extend their lead to as many as nine to head into the locker room with the momentum.

In the second quarter, the Duhawks connected on four three-pointers, all four of which came from the left wing, just in front of the Loras student section. Senior guard Cierra Bachmann tallied two of those three-pointers for the Duhawks as she went on to lead the team with 23 points with a 5-for-7 performance from deep overall.

If not for Abby Sanner, Trine may not have had much life heading into halftime as the freshman forward kept the team in it with timely layups. Sanner finished with a career-high and team-high 19 points off the bench for the Thunder with 15 of those coming in the first half.

Out of halftime, there was a nervous energy in the arena as Trine's defense started to make things hard for the Duhawks, who couldn't get much separation to get shots up. The Thunder got a pair of three-pointers from Makayla Ardis and one from Sierra Hinds to help them snatch momentum and head into the fourth with a 43-43 tie.

Including the final five points of the third quarter, the Thunder scored 11 straight as the final quarter got going, and their defense left Loras with few options offensively. In the closing moments of the fourth, Bachmann and senior guard Madison Fleckenstein each had shots go in and out, making it feel like it might just be "one of those days" for the Duhawks.

Even with their shooting woes, the Duhawks had a chance near the end as Bachmann's three-pointer with 16 seconds to play cut the deficit down to just two, but Trine's Sidney Wagner made all four of her free throws in the final 15 seconds to ice the game to send the Thunder to their second-straight Sweet 16.

Bachmann led the way with 23 points, but junior forward Sami Martin was close behind as she earned a hard-fought double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. The duo scored 43 of Loras' 54 points as graduate guard Hannah Thiele gave the Duhawks their only three bench points.

The loss concludes another strong season of Loras women's basketball that sees the program fall just one win short of tying the record for wins in a season (25 in 2019-20). With a 5-1 record against ranked opponents, the Duhawks won the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Tournament to secure the league's automatic tournament bid with Loras playing host to the first and second rounds for the first time ever.