Cutting basketball nets is something the Lady Wolfpack are getting used to.

The Lady Wolfpack entered the Gulf Coast Atlantic Conference Tournament as the top seed, and left as the champions. Loyola defeaated LSU-Shrevepport 61- 40 March 10 in The Den. They now head to Jackson, Tenn. to represent the GCAC in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics from March 18-24.

The team surpassed expectations, winning the conference tournament with new coach Kellie Kennedy. Trenell Smith, management senior, never doubted her coach.

“I was confident she was going to come in and do a good job from the beginning. I wouldn’t have doubted anybody because we didn’t have a coach at the time, so we didn’t have any room to doubt anybody,” Trenell said.

“When she came in I trusted her because she said she was going to come in and do the best that she could and lead us to championships,” she said.

This was the second time Trenese Smith, management senior, participated in the post-game celebration of cutting down the net, and she believes both were memorable for different reasons.

“There was the same level of excitement. The first time was memorable because I had never been through it and this time because we were able to repeat, so same level of excitement for different reasons,” she said.

She said she is excited to come back and do it again next year, the extra year of eligibility granted by the league because of the lost year due to Hurricane Katrina.

“I want to get another championship next year, my last year,” she said. The environment and the people in the school made the twins want to return and try to do it again, one last time.

The team was the number one seed, earning them a first round bye.

Their first test of the tournament came against the Mobile Rams, the tournament’s eighth seed, in the quarterfinals on March 4.

The Wolfpack defeated the Rams comfortably, 80-62, despite having 21 turnovers. 

Trenese recorded a double-double in the process, with 24 points and 11 rebounds. The team recorded 27 rebounds, seven more than their opponent.

In the semifinal round, the Lady Wolfpack defeated the William Carey University 79-69. Trenese led the team with 27 points. Christine Mainguy, finance and management senior, recorded 14 points and eight rebounds.

The Lady Wolfpack recorded 38 rebounds, while the William Carey Lady Crusaders had 23. Mainguy and Trenese led the team in this category, each having eight rebounds. Their struggles with turnovers continued, as they had 18, seven more than the Lady Crusaders.

In the championship game, the Lady ‘Pack faced off against the Louisiana State University-Shreveport Lady Pilots. It was the last time the lone senior, Mainguy, played in The Den in front of the home crowd. She finished the game with six points and seven rebounds.

In the end, the Smith twins stole the show. Trenell led the team with 16 points and her  sister followed with 15. They were the only two players who scored in double figures.

Trenell believes the team has to remain focused because their job is not complete yet. “We have to prepare for the national tournament and keep our momentum going,” she said.

Kennedy said performances like these are vital for the team’s success down the road.”They played great tonight and we will absolutely need them to perform like this in the tournament, but I do feel that those two recognize that there are other people on this team that can score and I think it takes a little of the pressure off of them,” she said.

The teams hustled, despite having already qualified for the National Tournament because they were one of the top two teams in the GCAC.

“It’s easy to motivate a team that’s self motivated and we made some commitments early in the year that this was one of the things that we wanted to do and they were very focused on that,” Kennedy said.

“We set our goals and we set our standards, and not only did we win this championship tonight, but we remained undefeated at home this entire year.”

Trenell confirmed her coach’s remarks.”The conference title isn’t enough for us. We want it all,” she said

There was something else the team wanted to do. “We just felt like we needed to prove exactly who the best team in the league was,” she said.

These three players were also a part of the team that won the conference tournament in 2007.

“It’s been a great experience every year. Nobody likes to lose, but losing last year turned out better, because we were beating teams by too much and it gave us an extra shove going into the tournament,” she said.

Looking ahead to Jackson, Kennedy believes there is room for improvement before they play their first game.”I think our post players are going to have to step up and really rebound and score for us, and it doesn’t have to be the same person every time,” she said.

Last year’s team defeated Westminster and Point Loma Nazarene, the number one seed in the tournament, making it to the Elite Eight round of the tournament. The Lady Wolfpack, however, did not get past that round, losing to Travecca Nazarene, 50-68.

Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected].