Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland returns to action after a seven-day layoff for Christmas when it takes on North Carolina State University on Friday, December 28, 2018. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. at PNC Arena in Raleigh.
- Friday's game, Loyola's final non-conference tilt of the 2018-19 regular-season, is the Greyhounds' fifth out of five in a row on the road, a stretch that started December 5.
- In its last four games, Loyola has shot 51.5 percent from the field and 48.0 percent from 3-point range. Andrew Kostecka, Brent Holcombe, KaVaughn Scott and Kenneth Jones have combined to shoot 61.6 percent (77 of 125).
- Chuck Champion and Kostecka are a combined 18 of 33 (54.5) from 3-point range in those three games. Kostecka is 9 of 12.
- Kostecka has set career-highs in scoring three times in the last month. He is averaging 23.1 points in Loyola's last eight.
- 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 North Carolina State for the fifth time in school history with the Wolfpack winning each of the previous five.
- The teams last met almost 10 years to the date when the Wolfpack squeezed out a 62-60 victory on December 29, 2008, at what was then RBC Arena.
- Marquis Sullivan spearheaded a Loyola comeback from down 16 points with 8:26 remaining by making four 3-pointers over a two-and-a-half minute stretch and the Greyhounds had a shot to win the game down one on their final possession of the game.
- Sullivan started the Greyhounds on a 14-1 run after dropping those four shots from behind the arc to put Loyola within three at 55-52 at the 5:41 mark. Both teams then exchanged four points before sophomore guard Jamal Barney sunk a right-handed hook for a 61-58 score with 1:30 left to play. Barney then had a second layup off a defensive rebound from junior forward Jawaan Wright to put Loyola within one with 51.3 seconds left.
- With 21.6 left in the game, Wright put his hands on the ball to force a jump ball and give Loyola possession. After the Greyhounds final time out, Barney drove the left side and short-ironed a baseline jumper from eight feet. Courtney Fells grabbed the rebound and was fouled, making the second of the two-shot foul for the final score.
- Loyola had to mount a comeback in the first half as well. The Wolfpack scored the first 10 points of the game and build an 18-4 lead just over seven minutes into the game. The Greyhounds roared back with a 23-8 run to grab a 27-26 lead on a Sullivan jumper with 4:43 remaining in the first half. When junior guard Brett Harvey sunk a pair of free throws with 4.4 ticks left before halftime, the game went to the intermission tied at 29.
- Sullivan (21) and Barney (20) each reached the 20-point barrier, while Brian Rudolph added nine points and six assists and Anthony Winbush grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. For North Carolina State, Ben McCauley posted a double-double with 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Costner and Fells evenly split 22 points.
Last Time Out
- Loyola cut the UMass Lowell 10-point halftime lead to four twice in the second half's first four minutes, but the host River Hawks had an answer for that Greyhounds run and others, pulling away for a 97-79 non-conference victory in New England.
- KaVaughn Scott scored seven points in the first two minutes, 45 seconds of the second half, making the back-end of two free throws with 17:15 on the clock to close the gap to 47-42 after Loyola trailed 45-35 at halftime.
- Minutes later, Andrew Kostecka, who had a team-high 23 points, turned the corner at the top of the perimeter and aggressively drove for a dunk that made it a four-point game, 50-46, at 16:44.
- Christian Lutete made two of three at the free-throw line on the ensuing River Hawks' possession, but Isaiah Hart scored in the paint to draw Loyola back within four. UMass Lowell, however, scored the next seven points, capped by a Lutete traditional 3-point play, to push the lead back to 11 in less than two minutes.
- Save for a Kostecka putback dunk at 13:35, and a Kenneth Jones fast-break layup after a Hart steal at 8:39 that made it a nine-point gap, the UMass Lowell remained in double-figures for the rest of the rest of the game.
- Jones scored a career-high 12 points for Loyola, while Brent Holcombe added 16 and Chuck Champion had 11.
- In the first half, Loyola used a 12-2 run to get within two, 32-30, on a Kostecka layup with 4:43 left before halftime, but UMass Lowell scored 11 of the next 12 points with a Lutete three stretching the lead to 43-31 with 1:40 on the clock.
- Lutete scored 34 points to lead all players, knocking down 12 of 18 shots from the field. Obadiah Noel tallied 16, while Alex Rivera and Ryan Jones each scored 13 for the River Hawks.
Kostecka In The Last Eight
- Andrew Kostecka has logged career-high scoring numbers three times in the Greyhounds' last eight games, recording five games with 23 or more points and two with 30 or better.
- Over the course of the last eight, Kostecka 23.1 points to go with 5.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He has shot 55.7 percent from the field during those games 50.0 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. He had his fifth outing with 23 or more, hitting that number at UMass Lowell.
- 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 17 of 35 since, and including, that bucket.
- Kostecka leads the Patriot League in scoring this year with 19.8 points per game, and his 4.8 rebounds are 76th, second-most among guards. His 19.8 points per game rank 47th, and his 238 total points this year rank 51st 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 four games, a stretch in which he has scored in double-figures three times. Scott has made 17 of 25 shots (68 percent) and is averaging 10.5 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 and nine at UMass Lowell.
- Overall this season, Scott is fourth on the team with 7.7 points per game, making 66.0 percent of his shots from the field.
Statistical Differences
- Loyola's four wins and eight 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 51.1 percent overall and 47.4 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 9.0 in Loyola's last seven games.
- The sophomore point guard, who averaged a shade over 10 points per game during 2017-18, has shot 50 percent from the field dating back to Loyola's Nov. 20 win against Hampton University, and he's made 44.4 percent of 3-point attempts since then.
- More impressively, Hart has committed only four turnovers in Loyola's last six games as the team's primary point guard in 169 minutes of action.
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 14.8 assists per game this season, a number that ranks fourth in the Patriot League. The number is more than three 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.
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 12.08points and first with 32.7 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 250 times, making 177, and rank 138th in NCAA Division I in free-throws attempted, 132nd 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 52th in the nation, and first in the conference, with 59 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 11.0 this season, and his rebounds per game from 3.8 to a team-best 6.0.
- Holcombe has scored seven or more in all but one game this season and is shooting 54.6 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 5.7 points per game in an average of 18.3 minutes, while Andrews has seen 14.8 minutes per game and averaged 3.1 points.
- Andrews scored a to-date career-high nine points, all in the first half, at Binghamton. Jones tallied a career-best with 12 points at UMass Lowell, making five of nine shots from the field.
- 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 17.3 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
- Loyola opens Patriot League action, it's sixth season in the conference, with a home contest on Thursday, January 3, against College of the Holy Cross at 7 p.m.
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.
