Match Information
Opponent	St. John's Red Storm | GoPrint.com Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper
Date	Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Time	6:30 p.m.
Location	Queens, N.Y. | Carnesecca Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Getting There	Directions
Television	Fox Sports Net | MASN2 (Baltimore/D.C. Area) | Affiliates List
Online Media	Live Stats
Follow Us	Facebook | Twitter
Game Notes	Loyola

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland officially open its 109th season of men's basketball on Tuesday, November 6, when the 2018-2019 season officially tips off. The Greyhounds will travel to Queens, New York, for a 6:30 p.m. game at St. John's University.
• The game, which is part of the GoPrint.com Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper, against the Red Storm will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net regional affiliates. In the Baltimore area, the game will air live on MASN2.
• Tavaras Hardy will make his head coaching debut when Loyola opens the season. He was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28, 2018.
• Hardy will be joined on the sidelines by three assistant coaches who are also in this first year at Loyola: A.J. Guyton, Ivo Simović and Brenden Straughn. Kevin Farrell is back for his seventh season as the team's director of operations.
• The Greyhounds return 59.7 percent of their scoring and 60.7 percent of rebounds from a year ago. .
• Three players – Isaiah Hart, Andrew Kostecka and Chuck Champion – who started more than half of last year's 30 games return for the 2018-2019 season. 
• Loyola also has three players return who averaged 10.3 or more points per game in 2017-18. Chuck Champion checked in with 11.5 points, Andrew Kostecka had 11.0, and Isaiah Hart added 10.3.

Series History

• Loyola and St. John's will meet for the 11th time in series history, but it will be the first game between the programs since Franklin Roosevelt was the President of the United States.
• The Red Storm have won all 10 of the previous meetings that were played between 1920-1934.
• St. John's scored a 49-32 victory in the teams' last meeting, a game in Queens on December 14, 1932.

Exhibition Opener

• Chuck Champion, Andrew Kostecka and Brent Holcombe combined to shot better than 77 percent from the field on Thursday night, as Loyola jumped out to a 19-point lead in the game's first 12 minutes of an 88-69 exhibition victory over John Jay.
• Champion led all scorers with 22 points, making 8 of 12 shots from the field and 4 of 6 from 3-point range; he also had a team-high five assists to go with only one turnover. Kostecka scored more points (18) than minutes played (17), and Holcombe nearly matched that with 16 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds in 18 minutes.
• John Jay scored the game's first points, but Loyola reeled off 25 of the next 29 to lead 25-6 on two Champion free throws at 8:42 in the first half. Less than three minutes later, Jan Dornik knocked down a three from the top of the left perimeter, and an Isaiah Hart transition layup stretched the advantage to 36-13. Kostecka scored in the paint at 2:53, making it a 28-point lead, 42-14, before John Jay got within 23, 48-25, at halftime.
• Loyola had a 45-33 advantage in rebounds during the game as Kostecka and Jaylin Andrews each pulled down seven, and KaVaughn Scott grabbed six to go with seven points.
• Essien Epps had a double-double for the Bloodhounds, scoring 19 with 11 rebounds, but his 19 points came on 6 of 24 shooting.

All-Around Andrew

• Andrew Kostecka earned Patriot League All-Defensive Team honors – the first for a Loyola player since the Greyhounds joined the conference in 2013-14 – last season after finishing second in the conference in steals per game (2.1) and fourth in blocks (1.1). He was the only Patriot League player to rank in the top five of both categories in 2017-18.
• His 29 blocked shots were the most in Loyola history by a non-post player.
• Kostecka was much more than just a defensive player, however, as he scored at every level and averaged 11.0 points per game as a sophomore. He shot .452 overall (.502 from inside the arc and .323 from 3-point range) and .745 from the free-throw line.
• A Maryland native, Kostecka scored 10 or more points 14 times and had a pair of 20-point games in 2017-18 for the Greyhounds.

Consistent Like A Champion

• Chuck Champion missed the first five games of the 2017-12018 season with an injury, but he opened his year with a flourish, scoring a career-high 26 points on 12 of 15 from the floor in a game at Dartmouth College.
• Champion followed that effort with 11 or more points in seven-straight games, scoring 15 or better in his next six.
• Champion was one of the team's most-consistent scorers a season ago, topping the 10-point mark in 16 of the 26 games he played during the year, averaging 11.5 points per game, second-best on last year's squad and the top returning mark.
• Champion is also the team's returning leader in minutes played after averaging 30.7 as a sophomore.

Big In The Last Three

• Brent Holcombe played his best basketball of his young career in Loyola's last four games of the 2017-18 season, averaging 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in contests against Lehigh, Navy, Army West Point and Bucknell.
• He scored a career-high 18 points on at Navy, knocking down 8 of 15 shots in the regular-season finale, both career highs. The 18 points eclipsed his previous-best of 17 points earlier in February against American. During the second half against Navy, Holcombe scored 11 of his points; nine of those points came over a seven-minute stretch in which he made a three to tie the game at 43-43 and a layup at 10:16 to push Loyola up two. He later passed up a three to assist on a triple by Andrew Kostecka at 6:41 that would give the Greyhounds a three-point advantage. He then converted free-throw line jumpers on consecutive possession to stretch that lead to seven at 4:27.
• In the Patriot League Championships First Round against Army West Point, Holcombe scored eight points, including two free throws with under 25 seconds left. He had his second double-digit rebounding effort of the year with 10.
• He followed that with a his first career double-double, a 12-point, 10-rebound outing against eventual Patriot League champion Bucknell University in the quarterfinal round.

Among His Peers

• Isaiah Hart was among the leaders for Patriot League freshmen last season in both points, steals and assists. His 10.3 points per game ranked fifth with his first-year peers, while his 2.9 assists and 1.0 steals checked in second in the same group. Additionally, Hart's 27.0 minutes played last year ranked fourth among freshmen in the conference.
• Hart led Loyola in assists and was fifth on the team in scoring last year. His 30 total steals were third-most on the team.

Whiteout In Rowdy Reitz

• The Greyhounds will host a whiteout for its first home game of the year on Sunday, November 11, at 5 p.m. Loyola will take on the Dartmouth Big Green with all fans encouraged to wear white. The Greyhounds will also distribute 1,000 white "Rowdy Reitz" t-shirts at the game.

Fives Back In '18

• James Fives will return to the Loyola lineup this season after missing the last 21 games of the 2017-18 season.
• Fives made six starts in the first nine games of last year and averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.7 minute per game.  As a sophomore in 2016-17, Fives started 30 of 33 games, averaging 6.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Scholarship For Sam

• After joining the team and playing as a walk-on for the last three years, Sam Norton was awarded a scholarship for his senior season.
• Norton saw increased playing time as a junior, playing in 26 games and starting 10 while averaging 2.7 points and 3.0 rebounds in 17.6 minutes per game.

New To The Hounds

• Five newcomers dot the roster this year: freshmen Jaylin Andrews (Owings Mills, Md./Boys' Latin), Jan Dornik (Kranj, Slovenia/Gymnasium France Peršeren Kranj), Kenny Jones (Hillsdale, N.J./Mater Dei) and Casmir Ochiaka (Enugu, Nigeria/St. Mary's of the Assumption [N.J.]) and sophomore walk-on Brandon  Bradsher (Ellicott City, Md./Boys' Latin).

A Nod To The Past

• Four players graduated from the program a year ago after spending four seasons with the Greyhounds. Andre Walker wrapped up his career sixth all-time at Loyola in points (1,682), second in 3-pointers made (214), ninth in free-throws made (376), fifth in assists (393) and second in steals (195).
• Cam Gregory scored his 1,000th career point late in his senior season, finishing with 1,019 over four years. He also gradated as the school's all-time leader in field-goal percentage (.5819) and third in rebounds (876).
• Chancellor Barnard did not play as a senior due to an injury, but he scored 429 points and had 292 rebounds over three seasons. Matt Staubi saw action in 64 games during his career.

Hounds Abroad

• Several former Loyola players have, or are about to, start professional seasons overseas. Those players include: Denzel Brito '15 (Onsabruecker T.B., Germany), Julius Brooks '13 (Corio Bay, Australia), Cam Gregory '18 (Tromso Story, Norway), Jarred Jones '17 (Lahti, Finland), Jordan Latham '14 (Hawthorn, Australia) Michael Tuck '08 (Sheffield Sharks, England), and Shane Walker '12 (Al-Ittihad, Bahrain).

Up Next

• Loyola makes its 2018-2019 home debut with two games in three days in Reitz Arena.
• The Greyhounds first host Dartmouth College on Sunday, November 11, before facing Delaware State University on Tuesday, November 13.

Patriot League Network

• All of Loyola University Maryland non-televised home men's basketball games will air live on the Patriot League Network for the sixth season.