The women’s basketball team’s home loss Saturday to neighborhood rival University of Dubuque, 68-59, was a bitter pill to swallow, especially since the Duhawks beat the Spartans decisively, 93-72, two months ago on their home court.

Coach Justin Heinzen said it’s not the most surprising thing that’s ever happened. He says every Iowa Conference game basically amounts to a “dog fight,” with each team in the league fighting for position in the standings.

““Dubuque is fourth in the conference, they’re a good team … they’re good enough,” he said. “They’re not a wash-over or anything like that. A better team than us? Probably not.”

He said UD packed its defense in tight, making it hard to get close to the basket.

“We had a hard time making a jump shot,” he said. “We tried, but we just didn’t hit them. We just have to execute.”

To Heinzen, the most discouraging thing about Saturday’s game was the Duhawks’ energy level. This late in the season, he hopes it will be a wake-up call for his team.

“We were losing energy,” he said. “We started out the first four or five minutes well, and then we died down from there. We just dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole, and then it turned into like a mindset thing.”

However, Heinzen was quick to point out that he was happy with the play of some of the non-starters, particularly sophomore Katie Sharp and first-year Niki Rivera, who he said performed well at a crucial point in the game.

“We had a pretty good spurt off our bench mid-second half,” he said. “We were down 13, and then Katie and Niki came in and gave us some good hustling minutes, which was something we needed because we were getting kind of dry, as far as energy goes at that point.”

With just two games to go this season, Loras has a 6-8 record in the conference and an overall record of 11-12. The Duhawks now have to dust themselves off for Wednesday’s game against Wartburg in Waverly, IA.

“It’s a fun little challenge because they play really well on their own floor,” Heinzen said. “And it’s a character game for us.  We can do all our scouting stuff around Wartburg and do all our plays around Wartburg and know them well, but at this point in the season it’s probably more about knowing ourselves more than about knowing them.”

When asked what he meant by this, Heinzen said: “We’ve found ways to beat ourselves instead of having the other team beat us. And taking care of that and kind of letting basketball play itself out is important.  I think we’ll be alright.  But they’re good, third in our league, and have probably one of the best defenses that we’ll see.”

Even though copies of The Lorian do not arrive on campus until Thursday, the paper goes to press on Wednesday mornings — long before the tip-off of the Wartburg game. The Duhawks then will host their final regular-season game against Luther on Saturday, Feb. 20, beginning at 2 p.m. in the AWC.