BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland returned from a 14-day layoff for fall-semester final exams on Saturday afternoon and cruised to a 27-point win over visiting Elizabethtown College, 72-45, in Reitz Arena, setting a school record for rebounds in the process.
 
The Greyhounds (7-4 overall) never trailed in the game as they held the Blue Jays to 30.4 percent shooting from the field while they committed 15 turnovers.
 
Loyola set a school record for rebounds in a game, posting a 53-32 advantage on the glass. The 53 rebounds are one better than the 52 Loyola had in a 2017 win over Goucher College and two higher than its total in a victory over Delaware State University last year.
 
Andrew Kostecka needed just 20 minutes to score 19 points and match teammate Golden Dike for game-high honors with eight rebounds. Cam Spencer scored 11 for Loyola, while Dike and Kenneth Jones each had seven points. Jones matched his career-best with five assists in only 19 minutes.
 
The Greyhounds scored the first eight points of the game as Brent Holcombe drilled a three, Kostecka scored off an offensive rebound, and Cam Spencer got an and-one in the paint with a basket and free throw.
 
Isaiah Hart then hit a transition three at 15:49 to make it 11-2, but just over five minutes later, Elizabethtown had pulled within four, 13-9, on a Wyatt Hockenberry three.
 
Loyola, however, scored the next six points, capped by transition baskets by Jones and Chuck Champion to give Loyola its first 10-point lead of the game.
 
Ethan Dubois momentarily brought Elizabethtown's deficit back to single digits with a layup at 9:25, but a Holcombe basket in the paint off a Hart assist at 7:12 put Loyola in front by 10 or more for the remainder of the game.
 
Fourteen players saw the court for the Greyhounds with 12 scoring. All but one player had a rebound, and six had four or more in the record-setting performance.
 
Bryce Greene led Elizabethtown with 13 points, while Loyola held the Blue Jays' leading scorer and rebounder, Connor Mofatt, to just two points and six rebounds. He entered Saturday averaging 18.1 points and 9.6 boards.
 
The Greyhounds continue home play on Friday, December 27, when they host UMass Lowell in a 7 p.m. game.