Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland officially opens its sixth season of competition in the Patriot League on Thursday, January 3, when it hosts College of the Holy Cross at 7 p.m. in Reitz Arena.
- The game is not only Loyola's first at home of the new calendar year, but it brings an end to a five-game swing away from Reitz where the Greyhounds last played on December 1.
- On the five-game road trip, Loyola shot 49.5 percent from the field, just north of its 2018-19 season average of 45.4 percent. From 3-point range, the Greyhounds knocked down 46.1 percent of their shots in those five games, upping their season average to 35.7.
- Over that five-game stretch, KaVaughn Scott and Isaiah Hart have both increased their scoring, averaging 9.2 and 8.4 points per game, respectively, in those games, moving their season-to-date marks to 7.4 and 6.5.
- Andrew Kostecka has averaged 23.6 points over Loyola's last nine games, shooting 50 percent from 3-point range and 55.3 percent from the field in that stretch.
- Kostecka has six games with 23 or more points in those games.
- 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.
Series History Versus Holy Cross
- Loyola and Holy Cross will meet for the 17th time in series history when the teams take the floor Thursday night. The teams met three times in 2014-15 and 2015-16, including contests won by the Crusaders in the Patriot League Championships. Last year, the Crusaders won both regular-season meetings to take a 10-6 series lead.
- Holy Cross posted a 64-57 win in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 8, 2018, and a 73-57 win in Reitz Arena on February 3.
- Since 2013-14, Loyola's first year in the Patriot League, Holy Cross has an 8-4 advantage in the series, including two wins in Patriot League Championships play.
- In last year's second meeting, Five Holy Cross players scored in double-figures, and the Crusaders downed Loyola University Maryland, 73-57. Jacob Grandison led all players with 21 points, while Jehyve Floyd added 14 for the Crusaders who shot 54.2 percent from the field.
- Floyd scored six of the game's first eight points, and Holy Cross built an 1-point advantage in the opening seven minutes. Grandison hit a three at 13:53 to make it 13-2 Crusaders. Grandison hit a pull-up jumper in the paint at 7:09 in the first half, and the lead stretched to 17 points, 30-13.
- Loyola got within a dozen, 32-20, on two Cam Gregory free throws at 2:53, but Karl Charles knocked down a three on the Crusaders' next possession to make it 35-20.
- The Greyhounds cut the deficit to nine, 49-40, on a Brent Holcombe dunk 5:45 into the second half, and a Sam Norton layup off an Andrew Kostecka steal and assist at 12:52 made it 50-42, but Holy Cross scored the next four points and was up by 10 or more for the remainder of the game.
- Kostecka scored a team-high 14 points to go with three steals for Loyola, while Chuck Champion added 13 and a pair of steals.
- In addition to the combined 35 points from Floyd and Grandison, Charles and Caleb Green each scored 12, and Austin Butler tallied 10 for the Crusaders.
Last Time Out
- A Casmir Ochiaka layup with less than seven minutes to play in the first half cut No. 20 North Carolina State's lead to three, but C.J. Bryce scored the next five points and the host Wolfpack went on a 17-5 run to close the period, parlaying that stretch in to a 97-64 victory Friday night.
- Andrew Kostecka scored 17 in the second half and finished with a game-high 27 points to go with eight rebounds and two steals for Loyola as the Greyhounds closed non-conference action with the outing.
- After Bryce hit a three and scored in the paint to make it 33-25 Wolfpack with 4:39 left in the first, Chuck Champion scored for the Greyhounds to trim the North Carolina State advantage to six. D.J. Funderburk converted with a 15-foot jumper for the home team, and Kostecka made the front-end of two at the free-throw line, bringing the margin to seven at 2:41.
- Bryce then connected again – he finished with 13 points – in the paint at 2:29, but a Champion transition 18-foot jumper put the score at 37-30 with two minutes left in the stanza. Jericole Hellems scored the next five points for North Carolina State, spurring an 8-0 run to close the half and put the Wolfpack up, 45-30, at the break.
- A Torin Dorn dunk 59 ticks into the second, and a Bryce transition basket just over a minute later gave North Carolina State twin 20-point leads, with a Kostecka three at 17:17 dropping Loyola's deficit to 17.
- Kostecka and Eric Lockett traded baskets with Lockett's giving the Wolfpack a 56-39 advantage with 14:58 on the second-half clock, but a Kostecka two and a Champion steal-to-fast-break-layup brought Loyola within 13 at 13:40. North Carolina State scored seven in a row, however, and 11 of the next 13 points, pushing the lead to 20 or more for the remainder of the game.
- In addition to Kostecka's 27 points, Champion added 12 with three steals. Kenneth Jones knocked down all three of his shots from 3-point range to finish with nine for the Greyhounds.
- Dorn paced five Wolfpack players in double-figures with 17 points, while Hellems scored 17.
Kostecka In The Last Nine
- Andrew Kostecka has logged career-high scoring numbers three times in the Greyhounds' last nine games, recording six games with 23 or more points and two with 30 or better.
- Over the course of the last nine, Kostecka 23.6 points to go with 5.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He has shot 55.3 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 and added a sixth with 27 on December 28 at then-No. 20 North Carolina State.
- 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 19 of 39 since, and including, that bucket.
- Kostecka leads the Patriot League in scoring this year with 20.4 points per game, and his 5.2 rebounds are 16th, second-most among guards. His 20.4 points per game rank 35th, and his 265 total points this year rank 44th in all of NCAA Division I. His is one of 45 players to average 20 or more points per game.
Establishing In The Post
- KaVaughn Scott has had hit best statistical stretch as a collegian over Loyola's last five games, a stretch in which he has scored in double-figures three times. Scott has made 19 of 33 shots (57.6 percent) and is averaging 9.2 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 7.4 points per game, making 60.7 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 52.5 percent overall and 47.1 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 8.3 in Loyola's last eight games.
- The sophomore point guard, who averaged a shade over 10 points per game during 2017-18, has shot 47.8 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 eight turnovers in Loyola's last seven games as the team's primary point guard in 172 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 14.7 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 12.8 points and first with 32.3 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 268 times, making 190, and rank first in the Patriot League in both categories.
- 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 46th in the nation, and first in the conference, with 66 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 5.9 points per game in an average of 18.3 minutes, while Andrews has seen 14.8 minutes per game and averaged 3.2 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.
- Jones has found his range from 3-point distance is leads the with a 45.7 percent mark from behind the arc, making 16 of 35 attempts. He has scored 62 percent of his 77 points this season on 3-pointers.
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
Up Next
- Loyola heads to the Lehigh Valley for its next two games, taking on Lehigh University on Sunday, January 6, and Lafayette College on Wednesday, January 9.
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.
