Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams played William Carey University on Jan. 25 in the Den, with the women taking home a win, 61-44, while the men fell to the Crusaders, 95-90.

The men’s Crusaders rank eighth in the country, and while Loyola’s men’s team stands at 3-8 divisionally, head coach Michael Giorlando felt his team played as best they could against a difficult opponent.

“I thought our team responded to the challenge of playing the number eight team in the country as well as we could have asked, except for the final score,” Giorlando said.

Management junior Daniel Kuhl led the Wolf Pack with 23 points and was optimistic despite the final score.

“It was a good game. We fought hard but we came up a little short at the end. This game shows that we can play with anybody,” Kuhl said.

Management Freshman Jalen Gray scored 21 points for the Wolf Pack, acknowledging that they were without the help of usual teammate and leading scorer McCall Tomeny, finance junior, due to injury.

“He’s definitely a big help, we missed him but we had a lot of people step up today,” Gray said.

“This game shows us a lot. If we just keep working hard we should have a good shot at getting some wins at the last part of the season,” Gray said.

The women’s basketball team came into Saturday’s matchup with a 7-3 record in conference play and a 13-7 record over all, ranking over William Carey who stand at 3-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference.

Head Coach Kellie Kennedy believes that they can keep this win streak alive in preparation for the approaching conference games.

“It’s important that we execute and do the things we’ve been doing all year long. For the most part I believe our team will be able to stay in the moment,” Kennedy said.

Janeicia Neely, mass communications junior guard, knows that while these wins were well-played, it does not mean they can be expectant when it comes to future games.

“We have to approach every game with the same mindset that we’ll play as hard as we can against every opponent,” Neely said.

The Wolf Pack will travel to McKenzie, Tenn. this Saturday to play Bethel University, and will come back to the Den next Thursday to take on Belhaven University.

Jose Garza can be contacted at [email protected]

Mark Robinson can be contacted at [email protected]