Lately, the women’s basketball team has been winning big and breaking records.
With their 90-61 win over Spring Hill, Loyola improved to 11-4 as Trenese Smith scored 37 points to break the Loyola single game scoring record by two points, a mark that she tied just two games ago.
“It feels great to break a college record,” said Smith, management sophomore, who became the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Jan. 13 for the third time this season.
“I take my hat off to the person whose record I broke because that wasn’t easy. But I’m really happy I did (it).”
In that same game, Kiely Schork scored her 1,643rd point – the most in Loyola history.
Schork, mass communication senior, attributed her accomplishment to the players and coaches who have believed in her for the past four years.
“Breaking the career scoring record is nice, but I look at it as a team accomplishment,” Schork said. “I didn’t break the record, we broke the record.”
And if these two accomplishments weren’t enough, psychology pre-med senior Kim Rigg scored her second double double of the season against Spring Hill and management senior Christine Mainguy tied her career high of 19 points against William Carey.
According to Coach Dobee Plaisance, the number one offense in the GCAC is clicking so well because of its “ability to make reads and understand their designated roles.”
Plaisance focuses on a front court offense that showcases the players’ ability to “move with a purpose” and penetrate the zones that make it easier for shooting the ball, either from the outside or with high percentage shots such as lay-ups.
She also credits a lot of their offensive success to Joey Steibing, assistant men’s basketball coach, for coming up with a triangular offense that creates great spacing for players to use their speed and athleticism.
That speed and solid shooting have helped them overcome their lack of size and score an average of 74.13 points a game.
“We know a lot about the game, like when to shoot it or when to pass it,” Smith said. “We are pretty smart in that area. We have one of the best shooting teams in the NAIA.”
Plaisance said Loyola’s offense doesn’t focus on any one player, despite Smith’s scoring surge, but instead relies on the open player.
“In our case with our three point shooting ability, that can mean an open three, as well as if we could get someone cutting to the goal,” Plaisance said.
She insists that she only has about two or three early offense plays, preferring to keep things simple so players can get in a groove.
This helps, because with the attention Smith gets, she’ll either be open or force double teams, allowing the outside shooting game to get open.
For Schork, it just makes her job of running the offense even easier.
“We have been focusing a lot on playing our individual roles on offense and focusing on exposing our strengths,” Schork said. “Playing as one and not five separate players makes our offense really tick.”
Smith thinks nationals will be in the future for this seemingly unstoppable team.
Plaisance agrees.
“We certainly have enough talent to win, and I’ve told them many times, I don’t think there’s another team in this conference that can beat us. But there are certainly teams in this conference that we can lose to, and I think that’s up to us. If we bring our A-game, we are very hard to guard.”
Briana Prevost can be reached at [email protected].
Head coach Dobee Plaisance talks strategy with the women’s basketball team during a time-out against Belhaven on Jan. 5. The team won that game, 82-65, and Trenese Smith, mass communication senior, tied the school record for points with 35. Two games later she scored 37 points, breaking that record.
