Even before Donte Ingram’s shot left his hands, carrying the hopes and prayers of Loyola-Chicago fans and the Ramblers’ NCAA Tournament destiny with it, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt knew that Ingram would be the one to take the shot.

Sister Jean, the 98-year-old nun who has served as the Ramblers’ team chaplain for more than two decades, knew from experience and the meticulous scouting reports that she files that in big-shot moments, the ball often finds its way into Ingram’s hands.

So after Ingram’s last-second 3-pointer lifted the 11th-seeded Ramblers to a 64-62 victory over sixth-seeded Miami in a South Region game in Dallas, Sister Jean’s jubilant reaction was exactly what one might expect.

“Thank God,” she said. “Thank God we won.”

For Sister Jean and the Ramblers, the prayers had begun hours before. As has become her tradition, Sister Jean, who uses a wheelchair because of a broken hip, huddled with the team outside its locker room. In her pregame invocation, she asked God for what she always does: safety for the players and a fairly officiated game. But understanding the national stage that the Ramblers stood on, she sought a bit of divine intervention.

“We prayed that God would help us,” Sister Jean said in a telephone interview minutes after the victory. “We said we would do our part and make our shots, but we needed God’s assistance.”

— The New York Times