Midwestern Collegiate Conference-After twice handling Detroit with relative ease, Loyola survived a 78-75 scare Friday in Dayton to win its semifinal contest in the first MCC women`s tournament.
Coach Marty Hawkins` team, now 21-7 and in contention for an at-large NCAA bid, meets Notre Dame (19-9), which topped Evansville 75-66, Saturday for the title.
Loyola beat the Irish 108-77 in their first game, but Notre Dame won 77-57 at home. That`s a 51-point swing, basketball fans.
”We`ll have to play a lot better than we did today,” said Hawkins, whose team trailed most of the way against Detroit.
The key will be the matchup between two former Chicago Public League stars, Loyola`s high-scoring Sheryl Porter of Marshall High School and Notre Dame defensive specialist Diondra Toney of Whitney Young. Porter has been held below her 18-point average and shot only 35 percent against the Fighting Irish.
Loyola will have to do a better job of getting the basketball to Porter than it did against Detroit. ”We just had trouble getting it over to the weak side for some reason,” said the 5-foot-8-inch forward.
Porter, picked as this season`s Player of the Year as well as the top newcomer in the MCC, did fight her way through to 22 points. Her most important scoring came with 5 seconds left, when she sank two free throws to clinch the decision.
Loyola reserve Sherry Metz, a freshman, contributed 25 points in only 24 minutes of floor time.
North Star Conference-Diana Vines of De Paul and Carol Owens of Northern Illinois clicked in the clutch Friday night, carrying those two teams into a meeting in the finals of the tournament at De Paul.
The winner of Saturday`s 7 p.m. game at Alumni Hall is likely to earn a bid to the Women`s National Invitational Tournament, won by De Paul last year. The Huskies and Lady Blue Demons split the two games they played this season. De Paul improved to 21-8 when Vines knocked down six unanswered points late in the game to seal a 73-64 semifinal victory over Wisconsin Green-Bay
(19-10).
Northern (23-6) beat underdog Akron (14-15) when Owens scored five unanswered points to build a shaky 66-63 lead into a 71-63 cushion with 1:08 to play.
Tammy Hinchee hit 12 of 14 shots and scored 31 points to lead Northern. Owens scored 10. Gail Ash led De Paul with 21. Vines scored 20.