Twelve years ago, when collegiate newcomer Dobee Plaisance first stepped on Loyola’s campus to meet her new team, some on campus told her she couldn’t win a game.

“Well, I won one,” she said breathlessly, minutes after she cut down The Den’s nets amid a mob of students second-lining to “Do Whatcha Wanna” to punctuate winning the program’s first-ever Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournament after a 73-68 win over Xavier in the final.

“When that reality sunk in, I knew without a doubt it would be a matter of time before I could get the right combination and win a championship,” said Plaisance, the GCAC’s Coach of the Year.

Five years ago, when criminal justice graduate student Dani Holland visited Loyola as a recruit, she said, “There might’ve been 10 people in the bleachers.”

An overflow, overwhelmingly maroon-and-gold crowd 40 times that size packed and rocked The Den’s bleachers Monday night and lined the track overlooking the court to watch her score 13 points, haul down eight rebounds and swat two shots against the last team to beat them 17 games ago.

“It’s amazing to play in this, to see what we all did together and how far we’ve come as a program,” Holland said.

Far, indeed – the 2002-03 season before Holland’s arrival, the Wolfpack women’s basketball team tallied a 4-27 record.

But on Monday night, they engineered the polar opposite reality and made history.

After they saw Trenese Smith win both Freshman and Player of the Year and join teammate and twin sister Trenell Smith and Kiely Shorck on the all-conference team, the squad reached the ultimate milestone: the program and university’s first-ever GCAC tournament championship, propeling them into their first-ever automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament. Ranked No. 6 in their bracket, they’ll face No. 3 seed Southern Nazarene (Okla.). Should they advance, they’ll play the winner of No. 2 seed Point Loma (Calif.) and No. 7 seed Westminster (Utah) in the Sweet 16.

WOLFPACK KEEPS XAVIER AT BAY

Plaisance hoped to keep star Xavier guard Jarryn Cleaves to under five points.

Her squad held her to zero.

“It took that for us to squeak out this win tonight,” Plaisance said.

Coupled with the ability to make key stops on defense and hit shots that kept Xavier just out of striking distance, it enabled the Wolfpack to win despite being out-rebounded 51-34.

“We don’t match up to them size-wise,” Plaisance said. “The rebound difference could’ve been a factor, but we were able to keep them at bay.”

That was thanks in large part to Holland, Christine Mainguy (13 points, team-high nine rebounds), Kiely Schork (six points on two-big three-pointers) and the Smith twins.

Trenell Smith, psychology sophomore, led all scorers with 23 points and her twin sister Trenese, also a psychology sophomore, added 16.

“I wanted to win and I was going to do anything possible,” said Trenell Smith, who also amassed six assists.

Whenever Xavier threatened, one of them fabricated a play that kept momentum on the team’s side.

If Loyola turned the ball over on a miscue, they got it right back because either Schork, mass communication senior, drew an offensive charge or one of the Smiths stripped the advancing ball-handler.

Trenese, who played with four fouls for the last seven minutes of the game, led with five and Trenell had two, leading to easy buckets either for themselves or for their teammates in transition.

When Xavier took a 30-28 lead, their only one of the game, with 2:11 to go in the first half, Holland buried a three in front of Xavier’s boisterous bleachers and silenced them.

Ahead just 56-54, Mainguy collected a missed Kim Rigg lay-up in between two defenders. With both of them bearing down on her, she pivoted into position and executed a difficult fadeaway jumper in traffic. Mainguy buried it, resulting in a four-point swing that had Loyola up 58-54 as opposed to facing the possible tying possession.

Then, with less than two minutes, she reeled in a missed Trenese Smith three-pointer and afforded Loyola another 35 seconds to eat off the clock.

“We just don’t feel the pressure and don’t get caught up in the hype,” Plaisance said of the key plays her squad employed to keep Xavier at bay. “I hope it carries over to nationals and takes us deep.”

Loyola sped off to a 17-6 lead before Xavier battled back to a 30-28 lead. The Wolfpack women finished the half ahead 35-30.

In the second half, they led by as many as nine and staved off Xavier when they were just two points ahead.

With 43.1 seconds to go, Xavier fouled Trenese Smith to put her on the stripe with Loyola up 70-66. She converted both.

After Holland split her foul shots with 19.5 to go to go up 72-68, Loyola forced a missed shot and ran the clock out.

Students stormed the court and mobbed the team in front of the scorer’s table, elated at the school’s top athletic achievement this year.

Minutes after the history-making win, the reality still hadn’t set in for the team.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Schork said amid the din. “It hasn’t even sunk in yet.”

Ramon Vargas can be reached at [email protected].

Freshman sensation Trenese Smith raises the GCAC’s top prize after winning the trounament final 78-63 over Xavier University Monday night at The Den. (Tyler Kaufman)