Wanting to end his team's season-long skid, UMBC women's basketball coach Phil Stern sought inspiration from a fortune cookie.
But as has been the case all season, the Retrievers' fortunes were doomed by a slow start, as Loyola bolted to big lead and breezed to a 72-50 win at RAC Arena last night.
UMBC (0-9) led just once - at 3-1 - and the Greyhounds (5-6) scored the next 19 points and were never threatened thereafter.
"I got a fortune cookie the other day that said, 'Start out strong and finish stronger,'" Stern said. "And we actually put that on the [locker room] board. But we just can't quite get out of the blocks."
UMBC missed six of its first seven shots and never recovered from a scoreless stretch of more than seven minutes early in the first half.
Facing a zone defense designed to contain them, the Loyola post duo of 6-foot Lauren Troupe (15 points) and 6-foot-2 Katie Scherle (12 points) still gave the smaller Retrievers fits. The pair combined for 23 first-half points, including eight by Troupe during the 19-0 run.
"We wanted to establish our inside game first," Loyola coach Candi Cage said. "We liked our post players in there on the block against theirs."
If Troupe and Scherle weren't scoring in the paint, point guard Krystle Harrington (11 points) was from the perimeter. She went 5-for-5 from the floor and made all three of her shots in the first half when Loyola shot 59 percent en route to a 38-26 lead.
UMBC battled back behind freshman Courtney Doughman (12 points), who came off the bench and hit three three-pointers in just over three minutes to make it 24-14.
Freshman Sharri Rhode scored a career-high 17 points to lead the Retrievers, but Anastasia Goncharova, averaging a team-best 10.6 points a game, was held scoreless for the first time this season.
UMBC was still within reach early in the second half, as a layup by Mariana Santos (12 points) cut the Loyola lead to 42-31. But the Greyhounds countered with a 12-1 run and cruised to their ninth straight win in a local rivalry that dates to 1973.
"You can throw anybody's record out the door when you play somebody cross-town," Cage said. "I'm extremely pleased to win on the road. I thought overall it was a really good team effort."
LOYOLA-Troupe 6-12 3-4 15, Scherle 5-10 2-2 12, Cobb 2-3 0-0 5, Harrington 5-5 1-1 11, Dunn 0-3 0-0 0, Henn 0-2 0-0 0, Toliver 1-1 0-0 2, Orsini 1-1 0-0 3, Valderas 2-6 1-2 5, Wood 3-5 1-2 7, Glessner 3-5 1-2 7, Poole 2-4 1-2 5. Totals 30-57 10-15 72. UMBC-Rohde 5-9 4-4 17, Voss 0-1 0-0 0, Santos 3-10 4-5 12, Brown 2-3 0-0 4, Goncharova 0-6 0-0 0, Doughman 4-9 0-1 12, Hughes 2-3 0-0 4, Pender 0-0 1-2 1, Powell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-42 9-12 50. Half: Loyola, 38-26. 3-point goals: L 2-4 (Cobb 1-1, Orsini 1-1, Henn 0-2); UMBC 9-24 (Doughman 4-7, Rohde 3-6, Santos 2-6, Brown 0-1, Goncharova 0-4). Rebounds: L 32 (Troupe 8); UMBC 26 (Rohde 4). Assists: L 17 (Cobb 5); UMBC 11 (Rohde 4). Total fouls: L 17, UMBC 13. A: 432.