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Women’s basketball rallies past Loyola

Freshman Tamya Sims defends against Indiana State earlier this month. Sims finished one rebound shy of a double-double against the Rambler. Photo by Maggie Cipriano.
Freshman Tamya Sims defends against Indiana State earlier this month. Sims finished one rebound shy of a double-double against the Rambler. Photo by Maggie Cipriano.

The women’s basketball team earned its fifth win of the year last Friday at home against the Loyola Ramblers. After falling in two consecutive contests, the Braves used their week of practice to prepare for the Ramblers, who the Braves had already beaten once this year.

The Braves were ice cold early in the game and worked themselves into a 12-3 hole. However, redshirt junior Whitney Tinjum came off the bench and sparked a rally. The women outscored Loyola 26-10 the rest of the half, giving them a 29-22 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Tinjum and freshman Tamya Sims took over. The Braves went on a 13-0 run to break the game open early in the second half thanks to a couple of three-pointers by Tinjum and dominant post play by Sims.

“It was great to have two young kids in Sims and Tinjum play really well,” head coach Michael Brooks said. “I thought Tamya really carried us. We had a good inside presence from her. To have two inside players play really well against that team was great.”

Sims nearly had a double-double with a career high 16 points and nine rebounds, while Tinjum was able to earn a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards.

Sims and Tinjum weren’t the only players to have an impact, though.

“I thought we had some big contributions from freshman Sharece Burrell, coming in and playing really tough,” Brooks said. “Also to get [junior] Sameia Kendall back from injury [was great]. It took all 11 to win that game.”

The Bears 66-57 win was their second largest margin of victory on the year, and it also completed a sweep of the Ramblers.

The Braves are entering the end of the year with a more relaxed schedule. The win over Loyola marked the only game played in an 11-day stretch for the Braves.

“We were able to take two days off of our legs [after the win], which is great for us during this stretch,” Brooks said. “We’re coming into the brutal time right now and I think we got lucky in our calendar in our schedule that the [Missouri Valley Conference] drew up for us to have our off time right now.”

The women have four games left in the regular season, two of those being at home. They host Southern Illinois tonight at 7 p.m. in Renaissance Coliseum and will play their final home game Sunday against Illinois State.

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