HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The William Carey Women's Basketball Team picked up a share of the SSAC Regular Season Championship with a 78-70 victory over Loyola University Saturday afternoon at Clinton Gym.
"It's a great day to be a Crusader!! Our first SSAC regular season championship (shared) since we entered the league," said Head Coach
Tracy English. "It feels great to achieve one of our team goals. A lot of hard work and sacrifice went into this moment."
"I can't tell you how many times we talked about what we had to do just to get to the final Saturday and have a chance to play for a title. Just a great group of ladies. Coach Garriga and I couldn't be more proud of them."
The Lady Crusaders got off to great start, building a 21-3 lead over the first seven minutes of the game. However, the Wolfpack stepped up the defensive pressure over the final minutes to cut the deficit to 25-15 heading into the second quarter.
Loyola would continue to cut into the deficit, to get within six with eight minutes left in the quarter. However, Carey slowed the attack and would push the lead back to 16 points on multiple occasions before taking a 41-28 lead into the break.
Both teams continued to trade shot in the third with WCU taking 61-49 lead into the fourth. Things would get interesting in the fourth, as Loyola clawed their way back to get within two at 65-63 with under three minutes remaining.
However, Carey would settle back down and seal the victory by going 11 of 14 from the free throw line with the defense holding the Wolfpack to just seven points over the final minutes of play.
Rose Warren led five Lady Crusaders in double figures with 17 points.
Shaneal Corpuz added 16 with
Madelyn Ladner finishing with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Kolten Blakeney had 12 points while
Lauren Rowley had 10.
"I thought we were very focused from the start and executed the game plan well," said English. "We just tried to be the best version of us and not do things that we don't normally do. Loyola is a great team and coached very well. We knew they would make a run at us. Great win for our program and university."
Carey is back in action Thursday, February 29, as they take part in the SSAC Tournament. Carey will take on the winner out of Brewton-Parker and UT-Southern at 12:30 pm at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.
