NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Carroll Women's Basketball team punched their ticket to Sioux City, Iowa on Saturday afternoon, defeating Loyola (La.) in a 65-59 nail-biter.
 
The third-seeded Saints got out to a solid start, out-scoring the sixth-seeded Wolf Pack 16-11 in the first quarter.
 
Loyola pushed back in the second period, countering the Saints with an 18-15 quarter of their own. Carroll led 31-29 at the break.
 
After maintaining a two-point leading going into the fourth, it appeared that the Saints were going to run away with it. Carroll was up by 11 points with just over two minutes to play.
 
Loyola ramped up the full-court press in the final two minutes, propelling an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 62-59. A bucket by Jaidyn Lyman and a free throw by Jamie Pickens in crunch time sealed a 65-59 win.
 
Danielle Wagner was the leading scorer today for Carroll, dropping 22 points on 9 of 15 shooting. Sienna Swannack and Jaidyn Lyman each finished in double-figures scoring 10 points a piece.
 
Loyola was led by Kennedy Hansberry, who finished the contest with 17 points.
 
The Saints will head to Sioux City and face off with two-seed Morningside (Iowa) in the round of 16 on Thursday. Stay tuned on carrollathletics.com for more national tournament updates throughout the next few days.