BALTIMORE — If you want to see the true mettle of a college basketball team, check out what they do in the month of February.
The games mean more and their impact on the standings are of greater significance.
This is when the Loyola Greyhounds women are hitting their stride.
"We are expecting to be winning games," said guard Lex Therien. "We started at maybe the believing stage. But, now we need to go into every game expecting that we are going to win."
The Hounds are 3-0 this month and have won five of their last six games to climb into second place in the Patriot League. With a 7-5 conference record they are tied with two other teams a game behind Holy Cross. At 12-11 overall Loyola is on pace for its best season in 13 years.
Danny O’Banion is in her third year as head coach.
"We have just been committed to that process of getting better every opportunity that we have and it’s really fun to start to see it coming together at the right time," she said.
Guard Kimmie Hicks has scored in double-figures in three of the past five games. The freshman from Annapolis dropped a career-high 17 points against Lafayette on Wednesday.
"I have heard a lot of doubt from people, the outsiders looking in. But, we have just stayed together. We always stay together in the locker room, film we stay together. We know how good we can be," she said.
While Hicks has found her game as of late, this team has been led all season by a couple sisters with a surly surname - the Therien sisters. Junior forward Lex is Loyola’s leading scorer averaging 15.9 points per game. Graduate forward Ava is fourth in scoring averaging 7.5. Their dad is former NHL’er, bruising defenseman and tough guy, Chris Therien.
Just like their father the sisters mix it up from time to time.
"I think that’s a big part of my game," said Lex. "I’m physical. I foul. I’m a roughouser."
"My dad kind of always taught us just go play hard, play tough. Go at them first. Throw the first punch and then they are kind of going to be scared and be timid," added Ava. "So I think that has kind of carried over from childhood to now and it’s pretty cool to see that."
The Theriens and their teammates throw the next punch Sunday when they host Lehigh at 2:00 p.m.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
