Hope players may not be quite as large as the men who play football for the Bears, but the Eagles’ defense demonstrated Thursday it might be just as ferocious.
The Public League power held No. 6 Loyola scoreless for the second quarter — longtime coach Tanya Johnson doesn’t believe that’s ever happened to one of her teams–and held off the host Ramblers 39-36 in a non-conference game between Top 10 teams.
Latear Eason, a 5-foot 7-inch junior guard, led No. 4 Hope (8-0) with 22 points but preferred to talk about the team’s defense.
“We play excellent defense,” said Eason, who had six steals and three rebounds.
“We tried to double down on their post players. We had to come out with intensity this game.”
After Loyola’s Brittany McCoy, who finished with 16 points, scored with 2 minutes 4 seconds left in the first quarter, Hope had a 12-9 lead. At the half it was 21-9 with Loyola (5-2) chalking up 14 first-half turnovers and 4-of-17 shooting.
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asutton@tribune.com
