Dec. 3, 2007
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The West Florida Women's basketball team fell to Loyola University 76-72, in New Orleans on Monday night. The game was tied at 34 at the end of the first half, and the lead changed hands six times in the second half. The Argos had two chances inside one minute with the score 74-72 to tie or take the lead, but came up empty, and Loyola scored a late fast break basket at the end to make the final 76-72. The Argonauts were finishing up a three game road trip in a five day swing, and came up just short of sweeping the three game road-trip.
In the first half, Loyola took the biggest lead of the game at 30-20, only to have the Argonauts score 10 straight to tie the game at 30. From that point on, neither team could get a lead of five points or more the rest of the way.
Tara Russ led UWF with 16 points and 9 rebounds, and had a chance to tie the game in the final minute; however her jump shot rimmed out. Point guard Amy Drake added 15 points and three assists, and played 31 minutes for West Florida. Samantha Schlaegel contributed with 9 rebounds for West Florida. Dominique Boykins came off the bench to score 10 points, while Laura Davis hit on three of five field goal attempts to provide seven points. The Argonauts received 19 bench points to only three for Loyola.
"It was a great game by both teams, we definitely had our chances to win, and I think we executed well offensively, but we missed several open look shots after moving the ball real well, so I think the road trip was catching up to us," said head coach Shannan Bergen after the loss.
West Florida had defeated Spring Hill College and Dillard to start the road trip, and now will have 11 days of rest to take care of final exams before playing next at St. Leo on December 15th. The Argonauts fell to 5-4 on the season, while Loyola improved to 5-2 on the year.
West Florida out rebounded Loyola by a 44-39 margin, but had seven more turnovers, and both teams shot almost identical from the field, as the Argos made 28 of 64 field goals, while Loyola hit on 27 of 64 attempts. Loyola's Trenell Smith led all players with 20 points in the contest.
