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A ‘Four’ce to be reckoned with

Team chemistry carries women’s basketball team to first national tourney

March 17, 2005

Kiely Schork

The success of the 2004-05 women’s basketball squad is the team’s on-and-off-court chemistry, according to forward Dani Holland, criminal justice junior.

Loyola had four players selected to the All-GCAC team and earned a trip to its first NAIA national tournament.

“The team bonding started last year and nobody left from last year’s team,” Holland said. “We do everything together: movies and practice.”

Holland was one of the four players from the ‘Pack named to the All-GCAC team, along with finance sophomore Marjorie Bilinski, general studies sophomore Kiely Schork and sociology senior Joelle Bordelon.

The 5-feet-2-inch Bordelon will leave a hard void to fill when she graduates, according to Schork.

“All of my points probably come from her,” Schork said. “She helps you when you are struggling.”

Although Bordelon leads the conference and is second in the nation with 7.79 assists per game (265 in conference play), she is not afraid to take the ball to the goal herself. In the GCAC tournament she averaged 25 points in two games, shooting 63.3 percent from the field and making half of her 3-point attempts.

Bordelon also led the conference in steals with 99, a 2.91 average.

Bilinski leads the team in points and blocks, with 14.68 points per game and 18 blocks. She is shooting 53.7 percent from the field.

Holland’s total of 301 rebounds, averaging 8.85 per game, is tops for the ‘Pack.

Bordelon called Schork “one of the top 3-point shooters in the country” who gets open to shoot and is not afraid to take it to the goal.

Actually, Schork is the best 3-point shooter in the country. Her 138 makes from behind the arc on 371 attempts topped her conference record last year by 20. She leads the nation, including the NCAA.

“She shocks me sometimes,” Bordelon said. “She needs to be playing on a higher level.”

Bilinski, Holland and Schork are all in their second season with Loyola.

As of press time, only three of the All-GCAC honorees were healthy enough to play in Thursday’s national tournament game set for 4:30 p.m. against two-time defending champions Southern Nazarene University in Jackson, Tenn. Bilinski, the only Loyola player who received the All-GCAC honor last year, had to sit the bench to rest a torn posterior cruciate ligament that she suffered in the conference tournament.

Bilinski hurt her PCL, an injury more common in football players because it usually happens with impact on the ground, when she banged her knee on the court in the Spring Hill game, which the ‘Pack won in overtime 57-56 to advance to the GCAC tournament semifinals. She said she felt something pop in the game against Mobile but continued to play until she hit her knee again.

Torn PCL’s can be career damaging if players already have weak knees, Bilinski said, but she plans to do rehab to be ready to play next season.

“I wish I could play [in the national tournament] because we managed to work all season to get here,” she said.

She traveled to Tennessee with the team Monday to participate in the many events besides games conducted at the national tournament, including a banquet and Parade of Champions. She watched the team practice Tuesday and shoot around for an hour on Wednesday morning.

“They look good,” Bilinski said.

Bilinski isn’t the only player carrying battle wounds from the tournament. Schork has a black eye left over from the Spring Hill game two weeks ago. It is the same eye that she had to have stitched up after getting elbowed by a Mobile player earlier in the season. For several games after getting the stitches Schork had to wear a bandage and a face guard to protect the wound from being reopened.

The same Mobile player gave Holland a shiner in the semifinals, an 82-73 loss.

Holland or general studies freshman Christine Mainguy, one of the inaugural scholar athletes, will most likely play Bilinski’s spot at center.

Bordelon said Holland is the most versatile player on the team who frequently filled in for Bilinski throughout the season when there was foul trouble. Holland might be the player who takes over Bordelon’s point guard position next year although it is not her favorite position.

Bilinski was not worried Wednesday night about how the team would play without her.

“Southern Nazarene’s advantage is their size, but we are quicker,” Bilinski said. All season long she had to use her agility and speed to make up for her 5-feet-9 inch frame.

“She’s our big girl,” Bordelon said, “and she is not that big. She has to play against girls double her size and width.”

Bordelon said that if she sticks around New Orleans next year she definitely wants to help out with the team.

Gigi Alford can be reached at [email protected].