CHICAGO (December 8, 2021)
In Short…
Bre Hampton-Bey eclipsed 1,000 points for her career as Loyola University Chicago put fourth another impressive defensive effort, holding visiting Eastern Illinois (5-5) to under 30 percent shooting in a 58-48 triumph this evening inside Gentile Arena. Tonight's win sees Loyola move to 6-3 overall and 5-0 at home for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
Head Coach Kate Achter's Thoughts…
"Really happy for our team. I'm also really proud of them on one day prep to get ready for a really tough and gritty Eastern Illinois team. It wasn't our best effort, but you need to learn how to win difficult, slugfest games, and we've been in a number of those over the course of the last six years. It was also a great night for Bre, scoring her 1,000th point. She ended up with a double-double too. We had a lot of really good bright spots. I know judging by the box score it's tough to see that, but there were a lot of really good moments that happened tonight."
How It Happened
Loyola weathered a rough start on the offensive end in which it went scoreless for the first 3:31, as five straight points from
Sam Galanopoulos gave the Maroon & Gold a 5-4 edge at the 5:55 mark. Two Hampton-Bey buckets bookended a
Julia Hoefling layup, staking the Ramblers to a 13-10 lead before Morgan Litwiller connected from distance to knot the score up at 13-13 at the end of the first quarter.
Scores from Hampton-Bey and Hoefling, respectively, snapped another quarter-opening drought for Loyola, with Hoefling's layup putting the Ramblers back on top, 17-15, with 5:30 to play in the first half. After a Jordyn Hughes trey gave the Panthers a slim 18-17 advantage,
Kaylen Evans responded with a triple of her own to reestablish a two-point lead, 20-18. Loyola would push the margin to four, 22-18, on a
Sitori Tanin post score, but Eastern Illinois refused to fade, as the two in-state foes headed to halftime in a 24-24 deadlock.
With Eastern Illinois clinging to a 28-26 lead in the early stages of the third quarter, Loyola erupted for an 8-0 surge, highlighted by an
Allison Day three, that put the Ramblers on top, 34-28, just past the midway point of the frame. Hampton-Bey capped off the quarter on a high note, draining a mid-range jumper with time winding down to give Loyola a 40-33 lead.
Maya Chandler dialed in from outside only 44 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Maroon & Gold its largest lead of the night, 43-33. Eastern Illinois roared back, rattling off seven unanswered points over a 2:55 span to claw within three, 43-40. With the lead sitting at 46-44 after Abby Wahl finished inside, Galanopoulos took over, draining her second three of the night as part of a stretch that saw her account for seven of Loyola's next nine points, as her jumper at the 1:05 mark gave the Ramblers a 54-46 lead with only 1:05 to go. Loyola put the game away from that point on, as it held Eastern Illinois without a make from the field for the final 3:48 to wrap up a fifth straight win at home.
Inside The Box Score
- Hampton-Bey stuffed the stat sheet en route to becoming the 27
th player in program history to hit the 1,000-point mark. The Toledo, Ohio native posted her first career double-double, finishing with 10 points (5-9 FGs), 12 rebounds, five assists, a block, and four steals.
- Galanopoulos closed her night with a team-best 13 points (5-9 FGs, 2-4 3FGs, 1-2 FTs), reaching double figures in scoring for the third time in Loyola's last four games. She also added five rebounds, four assists, a block, and a steal.
- Chandler (3-12 FGs, 1-3 3FGs, 3-4 FTs) and Tanin (2-2 FGs, 6-10 FTs) rounded out a quarter in double figures for the Maroon & Gold with 10 points apiece.
- Hoefling continued her strong work on the defensive end, racking up three more blocks to go along with five points (2-3 FGs, 1-2 FTs), seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
- Loyola closed down another high-powered attack, limiting an Eastern Illinois team that had averaged 71.9 points across its first nine games to a season-low 48 points on 29.3 percent shooting (17-for-58).
- Wahl paced Eastern Illinois with a game-high 16 points (6-13 FGs, 4-4 FTs) and 11 rebounds.
Up Next
Loyola heads back out on the road this weekend, beginning a four-game swing against Central Michigan on Saturday, December 11. Tip-off from inside McGuirk Arena in Mount Pleasant, Mich. is set for 12 p.m. (CT).
