World news – Preview: Loyola women’s basketball prepares for its first appearance after the season, matchup with Stetson

For the first time in program history, the Loyola women’s basketball team is participating in postseason basketball. The Ramblers will face Stetson University in the opening round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) on March 19 at 1:30 pm. in Frankfurt, Kentucky.

Loyola finished the year in sixth place in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) rankings, but made it to the semi-finals of the MVC for the first time since attending the conference prior to the 2013-14 season. Tournament. Despite the quarter-final victory of the conference tournament, the Ramblers have only won one of their last seven games at the end of the season. Loyola finished with an 11-13 record, including 8-10 in the MVC in the regular season.

Stetson finished the season with a 9-13 record, including 7-9 in the regular season at the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) to take fifth place in the conference ranking. The Hatters lost in the quarterfinals of the ASUN tournament in extra time against Lipscomb University. This year’s WBI is the 10th postseason appearance of the Hatters in the last 11 seasons.

According to the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), Loyola joins the WBI with eight teams as the best team. Walkers rank 147th out of 343 Schools in Division I on the NET, while Stetson is 273rd.

Loyola should have a sizable edge on the boards, with Walkers having a rebound margin of 1.5 – meaning that they get 1.5 more rebounds per game than their opponents. Meanwhile, the Hatters have a rebound margin of -5.4 – which means they get 5.4 fewer rebounds per competition than their opponents.

While rebounding isn’t one of his strengths, that’s what makes Stetson stand out that he enforces sales and takes care of the ball. Similar to the rebound margin, where a positive number is good and a negative number is bad, the Hatters have a sales margin of 1.91 while the Ramblers are -1.17.

Though the Wanderers are not so Forcing a lot of sales per game, this year they were usually driven by their defense. The Ramblers played slower and tried to force teams into long offensive possession. They only allowed 59.7 points per game – the 60th best mark in the country.

While their defenses were among the better in the country, Loyola’s offensive was on the other end of the spectrum. The Ramblers ranked 282 in points per game in the nation and averaged 58.5 this season.

Stetson was in the middle of the field on both offense and defense. He put up 63.6 points on offense and 64.3 points on defensive.

Day was named First Team All-MVC this season after scoring Loyola with 11.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per Had led the competition. The day was also evident in Loyola’s two games in the MVC tournament with an average of 18.5 points at 62.5 percent.

After Wazeerud-Din had led the Hatters with 15.5 points and 2.4 steals per game, he was appointed to the second team All-ASUN. Of the 22 appearances this season, she scored 18 double-digit goals. Wazeerud-Din achieved a season high of 30 points in a nine-point win against the University of North Alabama on February 13th.

Turner has the Hatters’ second-highest average points with 10.3 points per game. In Stetson’s quarterfinal loss to Lipscomb, Turner was limited to only one point. Turner also tops the Hatters with 2.6 assists per game.

Reis was named an All-MVC award. Rice often guarded the opponent’s best perimeter player, contributing 10.3 points per game on offense. Their ingenuity was shown in the Ramblers’ loss to Bradley University in the semifinals of the MVC tournament. Rice finished with 17 points against the Braves, 11 of them in the fourth quarter alone.

The Ramblers and Hatters are expected to give their tip on March 19th at 1:30 pm. The game is scheduled to be streamed on Prepspin.

Kyle Brown is the sports editor for The Phoenix. Kyle has been reporting on sports for The Phoenix for over two years. He is a senior sports manager and a communications minor. If you can’t tell by his job and major, Kyle is obsessed with exercise. Kyle was in a dark place when the sport was canceled due to COVID-19.

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