After a breakthrough season, the Loyola women’s basketball team fell to Great Falls University in the NAIA Division I national tournament.

On Wednesday, March 18, the team was defeated 73-54 in the tournament held in Independence, Missouri.

The team’s head coach, Kellie Kennedy, said that the loss was a tough way to end their season.

“It wasn’t a true representation of our group, and that’s what’s hard,” Kennedy said. “That’s the way the game is sometimes. Some days you’re on it and some days you just can’t get anything going.”

The team shot 29 percent from the field and only 10 percent from the three-point line in the 19-point loss to Great Falls. In spite of the setback, the team can still boast a historic run overall this season.

The team defeated Bethel University on Saturday, March 7 in Montgomery, Alabama at the 2015 SSAC Tournament, returning home with a 81-59 victory and the SSAC title for the first time in Loyola history.

Janeicia Neely, mass communication senior, said her team was determined to win the SSAC tournament championship last weekend.

“Coming into the game we knew that we really wanted to beat them, not just beat them by a few points. We really wanted to show ourselves that we could really beat this team by a substantial amount of points,” Neely said.

Neely finishes her career on the women’s basketball team with 1,535 points, putting her at seventh all-time in scoring and second in assists with 467 during her four years at Loyola.

The team finished the season with a record of 27-4.