Match Information
Opponent	UMass Lowell River Hawks
Date	Friday, December 21, 2018
Time	7:00 p.m.
Location	Lowell, Mass. | Costello Athletic Center
Tickets	Purchase
Getting There	Directions
Watch	ESPN+
Online Media	Live Stats
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Game Notes	Loyola

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland returns to action after a nine-day layoff for fall-semester final exams when it takes on the University of Massachusetts, Lowell on Friday, December 21, 2018. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. at the Costello Athletic Center.
• Friday's game is the Greyhounds' fourth out of five in a row on the road, a stretch that started December 5.
• In its last three games (at Drexel, Binghamton and Maryland), Loyola has shot 53.4 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from 3-point range. The Greyhounds have averaged 80.0 points in the three. Andrew Kostecka, Brent Holcombe and KaVaughn Scott have combined to shoot 61.4 percent (51 of 83).
• Chuck Champion and Kostecka are a combined 15 of 27 from 3-point range in those three games.
• Kostecka has set career-highs in scoring three times in the last month. He is averaging 23.1 points in Loyola's last seven.
• Tavaras Hardy is in his first season as head coach of the Greyhounds. He was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28.
• Hardy is 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.

Series History

• Loyola and UMass Lowell will play for the third time in as many seasons when the teams take the floor on Friday night. The game is the third of a four-game series that will see its final game in 2019 in Baltimore. The teams have split the first two meetings, each winning on its own home floor.
• Last season in New England, Matt Harris made four second-half 3-pointers for the UMass Lowell, three as part of a big River Hawks run that led them to an 83-75 win at the Costello Athletic Center.
• Isaiah Hart made a free throw for the Greyhounds with 11:24 left in regulation, but it was the last point Loyola would score for more than nine minutes until two Cam Gregory free throws with 2:16 to play. During that stretch, UMass Lowell made six 3-pointers, three by Harris who finished with a game-high 19 points.
• Loyola was playing with a depleted lineup at the time as three starters (Andrew Kostecka, Sam Norton and Andre Walker) were injured in the first 30 minutes of the game and did not return.
• Cam Gregory recorded a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, leading four Loyola players in double-figures. Andre Walker scored eight points in the first three minutes of the second half and finished with 17, while Andrew Kostecka and James Fives both had 10.
• Jahad Thomas scored 17 points and had 14 rebounds for the River Hawks, while Ryan Jones and Rinardo Perry scored 13 and 10, respectively.
• Loyola led for the majority of the first half, three times going ahead by eight. A Walker layup with just 25 ticks left in the stanza put Loyola in front, 45-37, and it would go into the locker room ahead, 45-40.
• Gregory scored in the paint, and Walker hit a three on the Greyhounds' first two possessions of the second half, pushing the Loyola advantage to double-digits for the first time in the game. After a Perry basket for UMass Lowell, Walker scored in the paint and with a three, giving Loyola a 55-42 lead.
• Harris hit a three to trim the advantage back to 10, but Fives knocked down threes on consecutive possessions to make it a 61-45 Greyhounds lead with 15:47 on the clock.
• Overall, Loyola shot 42.4 percent from the field, but UMass Lowell countered with 45.6. The River Hawks made 12 of 25 from behind the 3-point arc.

Last Time Out

• Loyola used a 10-0 run midway through the second half to chop No. 23 Maryland's lead to 10, but the Terrapins soon responded with 19-straight points to pull away for a 94-71 non-conference victory Dec. 11 at the XFINITY Center.
• The Terrapins led 61-41 on a Bruno Fernando free throw with 13:13 left in regulation, but Chuck Champion scored in transition, pulling up from 12 feet to spark the Greyhounds' run. Andrew Kostecka then hit a 15-foot jumper and made a three on a fast-break, drawing Loyola within 13, 61-48, with 12:02 on the clock, forcing a Maryland timeout. Sam Norton came up with a steal for Loyola, and Champion hit a three from the left corner at 11:22, making it 61-51 Maryland.
• Anthony Cowan Jr. knocked down a three for the Terrapins less than a minute later, but Champion responded with a transition three at 10:11, and it was a 10-point game again.
• Twenty-eight seconds later, however, Aaron Wiggins caught an Eric Ayala pass and hit a three for Maryland, sparking the Terrapins streak in which they scored 19 in a row over 3:28 to lead 83-54 on an Ayala 3-pointer at 6:15.
• Kostecka scored 13 second-half points and had a team-high 18 points for Loyola. He made all four of his 3-point attempts and also had a team-high four assists with two blocked shots. Champion scored 16 points, and Isaiah Hart finished with 12 points; KaVaughn Scott added 10 points.
• Cowan led the Terrapins with 23 points, 18 in the second half, and Jalen Smith scored 20 to go with eight rebounds. 

Kostecka In The Last Seven

• Andrew Kostecka has logged career-high scoring numbers three times in the Greyhounds' last seven games, recording four games with 23 or more points and two with 30 or better.
• Over the course of the last seven, Kostecka 23.1 points to go with 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He has shot 56.4 percent from the field during those games 48.4 from 3-point range.
• Kostecka opened the stretch with a 23-point outing at the University of Detroit Mercy on November 19, topping his previous high of 22 points from 2017. He followed that a day later with his "low" output of 18 against Hampton University. He then poured in 30 points on November 25 at Towson University before going 12 of 12 from the free-throw line in scoring 29 on December 1 against Mount St. Mary's University.
• He upped his career-high by one at Drexel University, making a career-high 12 field goals in scoring 31 against the Dragons.
• Part of his increased scoring has come from better 3-point shooting. Kostecka missed his first 10 attempts of the season from behind the arc before making one against Temple University in the second half on November 16. Including that made shot, he is 16 of 34 since, and including, that bucket.
• Kostecka leads the Patriot League in scoring this year with 19.5 points per game, and his 5.0 rebounds are 16th, second-most among guards. His 215 total points this year rank 47th in all of NCAA Division I.

Establishing In The Post

• KaVaughn Scott has had hit best statistical stretch as a collegian over Loyola's last three games, a stretch in which he has scored in double-figures in each game. In the last three, Scott has made 13 of 20 shots (65 percent) and is averaging 11 points per.
• His 11-point effort at Drexel was followed by a 12-point game at Binghamton marking the first time in his career that he has scored 10 or more in back-to-back games. He followed that with 10 points at Maryland despite being limited with foul trouble.
• Overall this season, Scott is fourth on the team with 7.5 points per game, making 64.6 percent of his shots from the field.

Statistical Differences

• Loyola's four wins and seven losses can be seen in statistical differences. The Greyhounds have held opponents to 35.1 percent from the field, 21.8 from 3-point range in their wins; meanwhile, foes are shooting 49.9 percent overall and 47.7 from behind the arc in Loyola's losses.
• The Greyhounds have held opponents to under 70 points in each of its victories.

Points From The Point

• After battling through a rough start to the season in which he averaged 3.0 points over the Greyhounds' first five contests, Isaiah Hart has rebounded to average 9.5 in Loyola's last six games.
• The sophomore point guard, who averaged a shade over 10 points per game during 2017-18, has shot 54.1 percent from the field dating back to Loyola's Nov. 20 win against Hampton University, and he's made an even 50-percent of 3-point attempts during that stretch.
• More impressively, Hart has committed only four turnovers in Loyola's last six games as the team's primary point guard.

Patriot League Plaudits

• Andrew Kostecka earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors for the second time in as many weeks on December 3 after recording the first double-double of his collegiate career Saturday in a win over Mount St. Mary's.
• Kostecka, who had averaged 23.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in three games the week prior, had game-best marks of 29 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. He tallied 16 of his points after halftime for the Greyhounds.
• His 29 points were one off his career-high after he set a career-best totals in points twice during the previous week. First, he scored 23 points on November 19, at the University of Detroit Mercy. After finishing with 18 the following night against the University of Hampton – earning GotPrint.com Legends Classic All-Tournament Team honors in the process – Kostecka came back with 30 points on November 25 at Towson University.

Assists From Everywhere

• Loyola is averaging 15.1 assists per game this season, a number that ranks fourth in the Patriot League. The number is almost four higher than the Greyhounds averaged last year (11.6), and Loyola has not ranked above eighth in the conference since joining the Patriot League in 2013. 
• The Greyhounds have reached the 2018-19 total by having not having any players ranked in the top-15 in the Patriot League in per-game assists. Eight Greyhounds are averaging 1.2 assists per game or more. Loyola is 73rd in NCAA Division I with 166 total assists this year.

Champion Doubles Up

• Chuck Champion had his first career double-double November 11 against Dartmouth, scoring 17 points while leading all players with a career-best 11 rebounds.
• The junior guard scored 12 in the first half, including 10 in the final 10 minutes of the stanza. He finished 7 of 12 from the field. In two games (2018 and 2019) against Dartmouth, Champion has averaged 21.5 points against the Big Green. His previous career-high in rebounds was nine against Navy last season. The junior guard scored 17 again, just over a week later, in a win over Hampton, tallying 15 of his points in the second half.
• This season, Champion is second on the Greyhounds with 13.0 points and first with 32.5 minutes. He has scored 10 or more points in all but one of Loyola's games.

Getting To The Stripe

• Loyola has been adept at getting to the free-throw line through the first eight games of the season. The Greyhounds have gone to the stripe 230 times, making 160, and rank 98th in NCAA Division I in free-throws attempted, 104th in makes. Both numbers top the Patriot League.
• Andrew Kostecka mad all 12 of his free-throw attempts against Mount St. Mary's, the fifth-most in school history without a miss. He is 55th in the nation, and first in the conference, with 55 free-throws made this year.

Building An Inside Presence

• A year after averaging 15.2 minutes in 26 games (two starts), sophomore post Brent Holcombe has seen considerably more action through the first eight games this year. He has raised his scoring average from 4.8 last year to 10.5 this season, and his rebounds per game from 3.8 to a team-best 6.2.
• Holcombe has scored seven or more in all but one game this season and is shooting 53.3 percent from the field. 
• Holcombe played his best basketball of his 2017-2018 in Loyola's last four games of his freshman season, averaging 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in contests against Lehigh, Navy, Army West Point and Bucknell.
• He scored a then-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. 
• 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.

Freshmen Earning More Run

• Kenneth Jones and Jaylin Andrews have been the most consistent members of Loyola's freshmen class in terms of minutes played this season. Jones has scored 5.1 points per game in an average of 17.7 minutes, while Andrews has seen 14.7 minutes per game and averaged 3.5 points.
• Andrews scored a to-date career-high nine points, all in the first half, at Binghamton.
• The Mount St. Mary's game brought more significant playing time for fellow freshmen, Jan Dornik and Casmir Ochiaka as both entered the game in the first half for the first time this season. Ochiaka finished with four points in eight minutes, while Dornik had an assist and a rebound in six.

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.

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. This year, Norton is averaging 16.6 minutes 

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

• After breaking for Christmas, Loyola will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina to face North Carolina State University on Friday, December 28.

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.