Wolfpack basketball turned in a 1-1 tally in its Den debut in GCAC play against the William Carey Crusaders, with Coach DoBee Plaisance’s women riding the balanced play of four scorers in double figures to cruise to a convincing 69-55 win on Jan. 6.

They improved to 7-7 overall and 1-1 in conference, bagging the positive result Plaisance promised after a hotly contested 55-51 loss to SUNO earlier in the week.

“We’re a hard team to beat because we have so many weapons,” Plaisance said. “I was pleased with our patience on offense. We were better in our moving off the ball and movement on the ball.”

Meanwhile, although psychology junior guard Luke Zumo’s surging scoring made its expected appearance against Carey, coach Michael Giorlando’s men faltered to an 0-2 start in their first two conference matchups after fumbling a nine-point second half lead on the way to a 70-62 loss.

The men also squandered a late lead in their opener.

“We couldn’t handle their (full court) pressure and it was a difficult situation. We just got on our heels,” Giorlando said. “But we’re not going to panic. We’re not going to do anything any different. There are 18 games and this team’s going to get on a run.” SCHORK: FIRING AT WILL

Mass communication senior guard Kiely Schork sported an itchy trigger finger when she took to the court against the Lady Crusaders.

Her team having lost the conference opener against SUNO in the sweltering Wilkinson Center at Delgado University and having lost a pair of games in the University of West Florida classic, she admitted a sense of urgency had beset the Lady Wolfpack.

“We’re a better team than what we were showing,” Schork said. “We had to come out and show intensity, pride.”

Schork placed the settings on her shot at fully automatic, jacking up nine three-pointers and burying four of them. She finished with 14 points total to help propel the Loyola ladies to a 69-55 rout.

“Shooting has to do with confidence. I knew that the time I spent shooting in the gym and in between classes would play off,” she said.

Three other starters polished their strokes during the lunch window and on off-days, arming a balanced attack of double-figure scorers that was too much for William Carey to cope with.

The Smith twins, psychology sophomore guards Trenell and Trenese Smith, turned in twin tallies of 11 points – Trenell on three-of-eight shooting and Trenese on four-of-ten shooting.

Management junior guard/forward Christine Mainguy added 13 points on a precise shooting performance – five-of-seven shooting, two-of-two three pointers.

“We have a monster week ahead,” Plaisance said, her excitement subduing at the thought of playing Mobile University and Xavier University, both teams ranked higher than the Lady Wolfpack.

Either way, she added that her balanced stable of scorers will complicate anyone’s bid to beat her squad.

“If we pull the next week off, it’ll most probably erase what happened at SUNO,” she said.

GIO’S MEN FALTER DOWN THE STRETCH

An inability to cope with a full-court press. Turnovers before crossing half-court. Missed foul shots, in the friendly confines of The Den, in the closing minutes of the game. Bad rebounding defensively. Allowing baskets from William Carey after the shot clock nearly ran its entirety.

All ingredients for a loss, which is the result the coach Giorlando’s Wolfpack suffered for the second time in as many tries in GCAC play.

After William Carey’s Scotty Fletcher (who, alongside 2006 graduate Renaldo Dorsey dismantled the Wolfpack via the three-point ball last year at The Den) stripped a frenzied Luke Zumo (the psychology junior guard finished with 14 points, including four-of-five three-pointers) at half-court, he had the entire lane uncontested to finish an easy lay-up.

Fletcher instead sized the goal up from behind the arc and buried a triple that put Carey up 58-55, banishing a Loyola lead that had once been as big as 51-42.

He’d hit another triple on Carey’s next advance, once again brandishing his streaky three-point shot to outdo Loyola – Carey never relinquished the lead again.

“This is the first time we’ve really struggled against something like that,” Giorlando said after his team’s 70-62 loss.

History sophomore guard Torry Beaulieu was Loyola’s only other double-digit scorer, dropping 11 points on four-of-11 field goals.

The Wolfpack had established such a big lead thanks to a brilliant stretch orchestrated by general business freshman forward Nick Tuszynski – he emphatically swatted two Carey shots inside the paint, wheeled down the court, executed a shot and drew contact.

He converted the free throws to put Loyola up 49-41. On the next offensive advance, after a Carey shooter split free throws, Tuszynski collected a Loyola air ball on the weak side of the rim and put it back for Loyola’s 51-42 lead, its largest.

From there, unfortunately, Fletcher and the Crusaders caught fire.

Said finance junior forward Mario Faranda, “They got into a press. It slowed us down and it was hard to get past half-court. They caught us in a frenzy and the momentum switched in their favor and we were trying to crawl back at the end.”

Faranda finished with eight points and a team-high seven rebounds. He added, “It’s tough to lose when games are so close, and we have the lead and we lose it at the end. That’s just experience for our young team. But it’s far from over, we just need to stop these runs that are getting us at the end of the game.”

UP NEXT: University of Mobile, Jan. 11. Women tip-off at 5:30 p.m. Men at 7 p.m.

Ramon Vargas can be reached at [email protected].

Guard Trenese Smith draws contact as she executes a shot against the Lady Crusaders. Her and her sister dropped an identical 11 points on the night. (Steve Kashishian)

Guard Kiely Schork drives down the baseline and shoots a lay-up against William Carey. She torched Carey 14 points, including four three-pointers. (Steve Kashishian)