Loyal (25-4) won its first State title in its initial appearance in the Girls State Basketball Tournament with a 74-61 victory over the Milwaukee Academy of Science (23-5) in the Division 5 championship game Saturday at the Resch Center in Green Bay.

A record-setting performance by the Novas’ Shemera Williams wasn’t enough against the balanced Greyhounds. 

Williams scored her team’s first 13 points en route to setting numerous Division 5 records. Her game-high 40 points set a State Tournament game record. Combined with her 33 points in the semifinals, Williams also set the division tournament record with 73 points. She also set the game and tournament marks for field goals made with 16 and 26, respectively. She tied the record for three-point field goals made in a game with five, and set the tournament standard with nine. 

Williams poured in 22 of the Novas’ first-half points to lead them to a 30-28 halftime advantage after the Greyhounds led for the first nine minutes of the game. In the second half, the Novas’ built their largest lead of the game at 52-39 with just over 10 minutes to play in the game. 

The Greyhounds raced back to regain the lead with under five minutes to play fueled by a 16-2 run. Loyal finished the game with a second 16-2 run, which was aided by 12 free throws.

Karsyn Rueth led the Greyhounds with 25 points and nine rebounds. Morgan Reinwand added  23 points, which included 11 free throws. Remi Geiger also notched double-figures in scoring with 10 points. Tatianya Evans was the only other player to score in double figures for the Novas with 10.

The Novas complete their season with their first-ever State Tournament appearance.