Trenell Smith not only scored the most points March 9 to help the Loyola women’s basketball team conquer its second conference tournament championship ever, she also vanquished a year-old nightmare.
With just 15.8 seconds left during last year’s Gulf Coast Athletic Conference title game in The Den against Xavier University, the star point guard looked to be sitting on top of the world. She had already racked up 24 points and had the ball in her hands, her team leading 64-63.
Smith, management senior, suddenly picked up her dribble and tried whipping a pass across her body and across the court to teammate Christine Mainguy. She missed, and the pass ended up behind the Wolfpack bench, out of bounds. Some 15.1 seconds later, a Xavier guard hit the game-winning shot. Abruptly, Smith was forced to live through the “most hurtful” night she has known in basketball.
“I didn’t want to ever feel that way again,” Smith said. She couldn’t let the miscue cripple her. The Wolfpack left for the National Association of Intercollegiate Atheletics national tournament at the end of that week and rattled off a historical run to the quarterfinal round. But something still wasn’t sitting quite right with her, said her twin sister and teammate, management senior Trenese Smith.
When the night of March 9 came, and Louisiana State Uuniversity-Shreveport came to The Den, Trenell performed as if losing meant a federal conviction of perjury. At least twice she pounced on loose balls and wrestled for them, her knees and elbows landing on the court with bruising thuds.
Down 8-2 with 14:09 left in the first half, Trenell dribbled hard right then bounced the ball to her left hand behind her back. Managing to keep her step, she scooped up a delicate left-handed lay-up an instant later. An apprehensive crowd howled for the first time, as if they could loosen up because they remembered that all-conference point guard Smith was running the floor for them all night.
With LSU-Shreveport so worried about bottling up GCAC Player of the Year Trenese, Trenell rattled off a game-high 16 points, outscoring her twin by one. She handed out four assists, tied for the game’s top mark, and posted the best statistics of the night.
What a difference one year made. March 2008: Through teary eyes she watches Xavier stomp on The Den’s center-court logo after the final buzzer. March 2009: Flashing a wide smile, she scissors off part of The Den’s net, something she hadn’t done since 2007, when the Wolfpack last won the GCAC tournament.
“Three regular season titles and two tournament championships,” she said afterward, in awe of the program’s past three years. “It can’t get any better than this.”
An instant later, she corrected herself. “It actually could. The national tournament starts this weekend.”
