The women’s basketball team entered the postseason as the No. 6 seed in the Iowa Conference Tournament.

Senior Lindsay Bava apparently took it personally, as she burned the No. 3 seed, Wartburg, for 26 points to lead the Duhawks to a 74-66 victory in the opening round of the tournament Tuesday night in Waverly.

Sophomore Alex Hudson added 10 points and six rebounds for the Duhawks, while Melissa Herrmann also scored 10 points and contributed six rebounds.

With the win, Loras evened up its overall record at 13-13. More importantly, the Duhawks advanced to the semifinals of the postseason tournament. Loras will play Simpson tonight in Indianola, with the tip-off slated for 7 p.m.

Loras senior Lisa Morissey goes for a layup verses Luther.

Tuesday’s win comes three days after an equally impressive 79-60 win over Luther to conclude the regular season. What made it special was that it came at home on Senior Day.

“We got off to a slow start,” said Coach Justin Heinzen. “We weren’t doing some of the things we know we can do. It was just a matter of getting past that. I think at the 12-minute mark, we went on a 21-0 run. So that was probably a big turning point in the game.”

Heinzen was pleased with his team’s zone defense..

“Instead of like man-to-man, we did it where you guard a specific area,” Heinzen said. “We played a lot of that, more than we probably ever had, and we forced the other team to kind of shoot outside a little bit. When we went on our big run that we had, we were in that zone.”

Heinzen saw the victory as a great way to honor the three graduating seniors: Bava, Lisa Morrissey and Mackenzie Roth. The trio combined to rack up 26 points, nine rebounds and 10 steals in the game.

But there also was a first-year player, Melissa Herrmann, who was red-hot Saturday. She scored 18 points in the win over Luther.

“I’m really glad that I could help the team out with my scoring, especially as a first-year,” she said. “The season is not over, and as long as we play together our team can go far.”.

Heinzen said Luther is a unique challenge because it has one of the best players in NCAA Division III and also because the Norse take pride in playing tough defense. Heinzen was referring to junior standout Samantha Jewell.

“You have to believe that there is always a way. And if you don’t believe, there’s really no point in playing, so up or down, we just have to start doing our stuff a little bit better,” he added.