Game Information
Opponent	Chicago State Cougars
Date	Saturday, November 9, 2019
Time	2:00 p.m. (Central) | 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Location	Chicago, Ill. | Jones Convocation Center
Tickets	Purchase
Getting There	Directions
Watch	Fox College Sports
Online Media	Live Stats
Follow Us	Facebook | Twitter
Game Notes	Loyola

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland makes its second trip of the week to the Midwest for a Saturday afternoon contest at Chicago State University.
• The Greyhounds will take on the Cougars for the first time in program history with a 2 o'clock Central Time tip-off.
• Andrew Kostecka scored in double-figures for the 17th-straight game in this year's opener when he had a team-high 16 at Marquette. He has finished with 10 or more 47 times since the start of his sophomore year (2017-18). He has averaged 16.8 points during that time.
• Tavaras Hardy starts his second season on the Loyola sidelines after he was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28, 2018.
• Hardy is joined on the sidelines by assistant coaches Ivo Simovic, Freddie Owens and Taj Finger. Kevin Farrell is back for his seventh season as the team's director of operations.
• In Hardy's first season, Loyola improved its field-goal percentage from .438 in 2017-18 to .459 in 2018-19, rising from 218th in NCAA Division I in the category to 85th. The Greyhounds' assists per game jumped from 11.6 to 14.0, moving from 309 to 124.
• The Greyhounds return 94.6 percent of their scoring and 86.79 percent of rebounds from a year ago. 

Hardy's Homecoming

• Second-year Head Coach Tavaras Hardy will return to his native Chicagoland this weekend when the Greyhounds play at Chicago State.
• Hardy is a native of nearby Joliet, Illinois, where he graduated from Providence Catholic High School before commencing an All-Big Ten career at Northwestern University. 
• After playing professionally in Europe and beginning a career in finance at JP Morgan Chase and Company, Hardy joined the Wildcats' coaching staff where he worked on the sidelines form 2007-14.

Series History

• Saturday's game will be the Greyhounds' first against the Cougars or any team from the current configuration of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

About The Cougars

• Chicago State opened its 2019-20 season on Tuesday night with a 103-60 victory over Judson University, a NAIA school that went 7-21 last year. 
• Xavier Johnson went 13 of 18 from the field against Judson to score a game-high 37 points while Andrew Lewis added 15.
• The Cougars shot 56.2 percent from the field and had a 42-34 advantage in rebounds.
• Last year, Chicago State went 3-28 overall and was 0-15 in WAC play.  

Last Time Out

• Marquette's Markus Howard scored 19 of the game's first 21 points as the host Golden Eagles jumped out to a 21-0 lead Tuesday night, pulling away for an 88-53 victory over Loyola in the teams' season-opener at the Fiserv Forum.
• Howard finished 7 of 10 from 3-point range to score a game-high 38 points. His 30 before halftime propelled the Golden Eagles to a 44-15 advantage at the break.
• Loyola shot just 16.2 percent from the field in the first half, but the Greyhounds (0-1) improved significantly in the second half, making 50 percent of their 28 attempts after the break.
• Down 51-21 just 53 seconds into the second half, Loyola scored 10 in a row to get within 21, but it would not draw closer for the remainder of the game.
• Andrew Kostecka scored 16 points to lead the Greyhounds, while Isaiah Hart had 13 points, four steals and four assists. 

Ball Protection

• Loyola had just 10 turnovers despite Marquette's press and pressure defense on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Greyhounds opened the year with 11 steals, led by Isaiah Hart's four.

Exhibition Action

• Loyola tipped off its season Friday night with an exhibition game against Johns Hopkins, posting an 80-77 victory over the  Division III second-round team.
• Brent Holcombe scored all 13 of his points in the second half, including a go-ahead free throw in the last minute. Isaiah Hart then made both from the line with 20 seconds left before Loyola had two defensive stops to seal the game.
• Loyola scored the first 11 points of the second half to cut a 45-26 halftime deficit to eight just over three minutes into the frame. Johns Hopkins, which led by as many as 21 in the first half, shot 62.1 percent before the break, making 7 of 12 from 3-point range. The Blue Jays had a 14-point lead, 64-50, with 10:02 left in regulation after two Braeden Johnson free throws, but Loyola reeled off 15 of the next 17 points to close within one on a Chuck Champion layup at 6:06.
• Andrew Kostecka led Loyola with 22 points as one of five players with 10 or more points. Champion poured in 15, Holcombe added 13, KaVaughn Scott tallied 11 and Jaylin Andrews finished with 10.

Kostecka In The Last 29

• Andrew Kostecka has logged career-high scoring numbers four times in the Greyhounds' last 29 games, dating back to last season. During that stretch, he has recorded 17 games with 21 or more points, 12 with 26 or better and four with 30 or higher. He scored 13 or more in all but one of those games and had 18 or more in all but five.

Bring Back The Most

• Loyola returns more of its scoring from a year ago than any school in the Patriot League. Led by three players who averaged 10 or more points per game, the Greyhounds return 94.6 percent of their points from last season.
• Andrew Kostecka (21.3), Brent Holcombe (11.0), Chuck Champion (10.7) and Isaiah Hart (10.1) all averaged 10 or more points for the Greyhounds, although Holcombe was limited to 12 games before he was sidelined for the year with an injury.
• The three players – James Fives, Sam Norton and Jan Dornik – who are not back this year combined for 125 of the Greyhounds' 2,332 points in 2018-2019.

Preseason Prognostications

• Loyola was picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, the highest the Greyhounds have been tabbed before the year since joining the conference in 2013-14.
• Colgate was picked first, followed by Bucknell, American, the Greyhounds and Boston University in the top-five. Army West Point, Lehigh, Lafayette, Navy and Holy Cross rounded out the poll.
• Andrew Kostecka was selected to the Preseason All-Patriot League First Team by the coaches. He was also named the top small forward in Mid-Major basketball by College Basketball Central.

Season For The Books

• Andrew Kostecka had one of the most statistically prolific seasons in Loyola men's basketball history last year when he averaged 21.3 points, scoring 682 in 32 contests. His 682 points were second in program history behind only Andre Collins' 2005-06 total of 731 which is the school record. 
• The All-Patriot League First Team and All-Defensive Team honoree's 152 free throws made were eighth in single-season history, and Kostecka's 85 steals were good for third and are the most since Jason Rowe set the school record with 95 in 1998-99.
• Andrew Kostecka scored the game's first point February 9, 2019, at Colgate, and in the process became the 38th player in Loyola history to reach 1,000 career points. On February 23 at Boston University, he became the 33rd in school history to reach 1,100.
• Kostecka also has 166 career steals, good for sixth in school history, and is one of nine Loyola players to amass 1,100 points and 100 steals.

Think Globally, Not Just Locally

• Not only did Andrew Kostecka's statistics and play resonate at Loyola, but his 2018-19 campaign stacked up against some of the best in nation.
• He was the only player in NCAA Division I to average 21 points or more and 2.5 steals or more per game last year, and he was also one of only four players – Duke's Zion Williamson, St. John's Shamorie Ponds and Louisiana Monroe's Daishon Smith – to average 20 or more points and two or more steals. Throw in blocked shots, and he was the only player to average 21 or more points, 2.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game.
• Four players – Kostecka, Hofstra's Justin Wright-Foreman, Charleston's Grant Riller  and Austin Peay's Terry Taylor – took 450 or more shots from the field while shooting 52.1 percent of better. In the history of the Patriot League, only one player had accomplished that, Colgate's Adonal Foyle (1996-97). Research via sports-reference.com.
• Overall, he finished eighth nationally in steals per game, 11th in total steals, 27th in points per game, 30th in field goals made and 36th in total points.

In The Patriot League, Too

• In the history of the Patriot League, only two players have averaged 20+ points, 4.5+ rebounds, 2.0+ steals and 2.0+ assists. NBA All-Star C.J. McCollum did it for Lehigh University in both 2010-11 and 2011-12, and Andrew Kostecka did so in 2018-19.

Cementing His Status

• Jaylin Andrews joined the Greyhounds' starting lineup on January 12, 2019, and was a fixture there ever since, en route to earning Patriot League All-Rookie Honors
• At Holy Cross, Andrews connected for 12 points on 4 of 6 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range. He also had four rebounds and a career-best and team-high four assists. He had his second double-figure scoring output with 10 points at Bucknell and four boards
• He then went for 15 points, 10 after halftime, against Colgate for his third-straight game with 10-plus. Andrews was 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in overtime and also had two of his career-high four steals. He earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after the Bucknell and Colgate games.
• Andrews finished with 11 points and a season-high eight rebounds in the Greyhounds' second meeting with Bucknell, and he set a new career-best with 17 points when Loyola hosted Navy. Andrews eclipsed that best with a 21-point outing, making 5 of 6 threes and 8 of 11 overall field goals in the regular-season finale against Lehigh.
• In Patriot League games, Andrews averaged 8.8 points and 3.0 rebounds in 29.3 minutes of action in 2018-19. Prior to the conference starting, Andrews was averaging 3.2 points in 14.8 minutes per game.

Dishing And Taking

Starting with a February 2, 2019, game in which he had career-high numbers in both assists (9) and steals (4) at Navy, Isaiah Hart increased his production in those statistical categories over Loyola's last eight games of the season.
Hart has averaged 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals in those games, and he had a 2.5:1 assist:turnover ratio in the eight. Hart also averaged 12.3 points per game during those outings, buoyed by a 25-point outburst at Boston University, one off his career-high.
After battling through a rough start to the season in which he averaged 3.0 points over the Greyhounds' first five contests, Hart rebounded to average 11.4 in Loyola's last 27 games. During that stretch he is the team's second-leading scorer behind Kostecka. He averaged 12.8 points in Patriot League games.
In his first two-plus seasons at Loyola, Hart has played in 64 games, averaging 27.8 minutes per, and has scored 655 points to go with 191 assists. He is averaging 10.2 points and 2.98 assists per game.

Leading In The Post And On Campus

• KaVaughn Scott stepped into a starting role as a post player last season and turned in career-highs of 7.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 54.3 percent from the field.
• Off the court, Scott has stepped into a leadership role in several areas. He serves as the co-president of Loyola's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and he is also a member of the school's Green & Grey Society, a group of 14 seniors selected to represent their peers with the university president and administration.

Two Over Ten

• Chuck Champion is one of three players returning for the Greyhounds who have averaged 10 or more points over each of the last two seasons (Andrew Kostecka and Isaiah Hart). 
• Champion has averaged 9.0 points over his 87 career games, scoring 10 or more 39 times entering his senior campaign. The Philadelphia native has tallied 781 points in a Greyhounds uniform.

Closing On A High Note

• Kenneth Jones finished his freshman season with a flourish, posting four of his seven games with 10 or more points in the Greyhounds' final seven games. The guard averaged 10 points per over that span, capped by a 14-point effort at American and a 15-point game against Lehigh, both Loyola victories.
• During his freshman campaign, Jones played in all 32 games, seeing 20.3 minutes of action while averaging 6.4 points. He also finished third on the team with 70 assists, and he had a 1.62:1 assist:turnover ratio.

New Kids In Town

• Tavaras Hardy and his staff welcomed four scholarship players and a walk-on to the program this fall in Santi Aldama, Garren Davis, Golden Dike, Cam Spencer and Daraun Gray.
• Aldama and Dike recently won gold with the Spanish National Team at the FIBA European Championships where Aldama was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Aldama led all players in the tournament in efficiency (22.9), and his plus-minus of +141 (+20.1 per game) was tops, too. He finished as the championships' third-leading scorer at 18.0 points per game.
• Dike was a member of three championship teams in 2018-19, the FIBA U-18 European Championships and helping Real Madrid to the 2019 Spanish National Championship and the Euroleague U-18 Adidas Next Generation crown when he averaged 9.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in the 2019 tournament in Munich.
• Davis comes to Baltimore from the Dallas area where he was an All-District player at The Colony High School, averaging 16 points per game and helping the Cougars to the third-round of the state playoffs.
• Spencer starts his Loyola career after earning Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Player of the Year honors in 2018-19 when he averaged 25 points, seven rebounds and 4.5 assists in conference games, helping the Lakers to a 30-6 overall mark and 15.2 record in MIAA play. He was an All-MIAA honoree in both basketball and lacrosse, and his family comes with a significant Loyola past. His older brother, Pat, was a four-time All-American for the Loyola men's lacrosse team, earning the Tewaaraton Award as the nation's top player in 2019 when he set the NCAA all-time record for assists. Pat is now a graduate transfer playing basketball at Northwestern.
• Gray also has a sibling who has been a standout at Loyola. His older sister, Alexis, has started 40 games for the Loyola women's basketball team and has averaged 9.2 points over the last three seasons, entering her senior season.

Graduation Success

• Loyola University Maryland tied for the fourth-highest overall Graduate Success Rate (GSR) in the NCAA report released in October, highlighting the Greyhounds success in the classroom. Loyola had a 97 percent GSR marking the sixth time the Greyhounds have had a GSR of 97 or better. Loyola has ranked in the top-25 of the GSR in all 15 years since the report's inception.
• Loyola's basketball program was one of two in the State of Maryland that had a NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 100 percent for the most-recent report.

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 seventh season.