Matchup History
- The Greyhounds will travel to face off against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Tuesday, November 7 for their season opener.
- This will be just the second matchup between the two programs, with the first matchup coming back on November 12, 2010, where West Virginia won 80-49.
Quick Hits
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Danielle O'Banion is in her third season as the Greyhounds' head coach and returns 11 players from last years' team, including Preseason All-Patriot League nominee
Lex Therien.
- The Greyhounds reached the Patriot League Quarterfinals in 2022-23.
- Therien was named to Second Team All-Patriot League last season, where she averaged a career-high 15.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game on 49.1 percent shooting.
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Lex Therien was named to the Patriot League Preseason All-League team for the second straight season.
Welcome to the Greyhounds
- The Greyhounds welcome five newcomers to the team in 2023-24.
- Center
Aminata Hernandez joins the team from the Canary Islands, Spain. She becomes the fourth player on the Greyhounds from Spain.
- Guard
Kimmie Hicks joins the team from Annapolis, Maryland. Hicks was named to the IAAM All-Conference during her senior season.
- Guard
Kailey Kalet joins the team from Union Springs, NY. She was named the NYSPHSAA Section IV Player of the Year during her senior season.
- Wing
Amandine Amorich joins the team out of Montpellier, France, and is the fifth international player on the Greyhounds roster.
- Lastly, Center
Lily Bottomley joins the team from Canal Fulton, Ohio. She was named as the OHSBCA Division 2 State Player of the Year duing her senior season.
Scouting West Virginia
- The Mountaineers were picked to finish in eighth place in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, receiving 80 points, while Texas was picked as favorites, with 168 points in the poll.
- Mark Kellogg is in his first season with the Mountaineers, as he has accumulated an 445-120 record in 18 seasons as a head coach. He comes to West Virginia from Stephen F. Austin, where he was the head coach for the past eight seasons.
- The Mountaineers return six players from last years squad, headlined by Preseason All-Conference selection, JJ Quinerly.
- Quinerly averaged 14.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.1 assists per game last season.
- As a team last season, the Mountaineers averaged 66.0 points per game on 39.0 percent shooting from the floor, and 28.1 percent from three point range.
- West Virginia finished the 2022-23 season with an 19-12 (10-8) record. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championship to Oklahoma State, before later losing to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The International Connection
- Coming into the 2023-24 season, five players are from outside of the United States, with four of them coming to Loyola from Spain.
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Cristina Garcia, Laura Salmeron,
Marta Espinal, and Ami Hernandez all are from Spain, with Garcia, Salmeron, and Espinal coming from Barcelona, and Hernandez coming from the Canary Islands.
- The other international is
Amandine Amorich, who is from Montpellier, France, but played her high school basketball in Quebec.
Worth Noting
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Lex Therien currently ranked 10th in the country in rebounds per game as she averaged 11.1 rebounds. She also ranked fourth in the League in scoring and was eighth in steals per game. She also ranked seventh in minutes per game.
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Koi Sims ranked 26th in the country in offensive rebounds with 3.6 per game prior to her season ending injury. She was also fifth in the conference in rebounds and second in offensive rebounds per game.
New Faces on the Sideline
- The Greyhounds welcome three new faces on the sideline for the 2023-24 season.
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Katherine Bixby joins the coaching staff after serving as the Johns Hopkins Head Coach for the past six seasons.
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Diana Martinez joins the staff after spending the last two seasons as an associate head coach at Chicago State.
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Annalese Lamke makes the jump to assistant coach for the Greyhounds after serving as the Director of Basketball Operations the last two seasons.
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Hope Lewandoski is the new Director of Basketball Operations. Previously, she was an administrative assistant at George Washington University and also completed the Foundation of Sports Sales Academy with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
A Look Back
- Loyola finished the 2022-23 season with a 10-21 (4-14) record, which saw a five-win improvement from O'Banion's first season at the helm.
- They also won the most non-conference games in 12 seasons with six non-conference wins on the season.
- They also showed improvement on the road, winning their most road games in a season since the 2015-16 season.
- The Greyhounds also won their first conference tournament game since the 2018-19 season.
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Lex Therien set the Loyola record for most individual rebounds in a season (344), the highest rebounding average in a season (11.1), and most defensive rebounds in a season (251).
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Koi Sims set the new program record in offensive rebounds per game with 3.6 per game.
