BALTIMORE – Lafayette College scored twice in the paint over a 70-second span to go up by four with less than three minutes to play on Saturday, and the Leopards held on for a 65-62 Patriot League victory against a Loyola University Maryland team that was missing its top-two scorers due to injury.
 
Justin Jaworski had a steal and transition layup with 3:55 left in regulation to break a 59-59 tie, and Lukas Jarrett then scored with 2:48 on the clock to stake the Leopards (10-5 overall, 2-2 Patriot League) to a 63-59 lead.
 
Both teams came up empty on their next possession before KaVaughn Scott was fouled for Loyola going to the basket and awarded two foul shots with 1:41 remaining. Both free throws went off the mark, but a long rebound kicked back to Scott to keep possession on the Loyola side of the floor.
 
Twelve ticks of the clock later, Kenneth Jones slipped a pass to Isaiah Hart on the high left side, and Hart made a 3-pointer to draw Loyola within a point.
 
The teams traded empty possessions without points before the Greyhounds forced a fading jumper by Jaworski from 15 feet that missed and was rebounded by Garren Davis.
 
Loyola came down the court, and Hart tried the right side of the lane, but Jarrett came up with a block, sending the ball into the hands of Lafayette's Tyrone Perry for the rebound. Perry sent an outlet pass to Jaworski who scored and was fouled with 1.1 on the clock.
 
After a Loyola-called timeout, Jaworski's free throw rimmed out, and Jaylin Andrews pulled down the board. His full-court shot was just off the mark, hitting the rim to secure the win for the Leopards.
 
 The Greyhounds entered the game with six players unavailable due to injury, including Andrew Kostecka and Cam Spencer who are the top scorers on the team, averaging 21.4 and 9.9 points per game, respectively.
 
A combination of good 3-point shooting and solid defense kept the Greyhounds (9-8, 1-3) in front or close to Lafayette for the entire game. Neither Loyola, nor the Leopards led by more than six points in the game as the lead changed hands 10 times and was tied five times.
 
Hart, who had a game- and season-high 21 points for Loyola, hit a three with 4:33 left in the first half to push the Greyhounds' lead to 34-28, the largest margin that either team would be up by in the game.
 
A Golden Dike offensive rebounds and dunk with 33 second left, and a defensive stand by the Greyhounds in the final seconds of the first sent the teams to the locker room with Loyola in front, 40-37.
 
Both defenses were more in control of the tempo in the second half as the teams combined for only 50 points after the break following a 77-point first half.
 
Lafayette built a pair of two-point leads in the first six minutes of the second half, but a dunk by Scott at 12:17 and a Davis three with 11:39 to go in regulation put Loyola in front 51-48.
 
The Leopards twice tied the game before an off-balanced layup by Scott gave Loyola a 55-53 advantage with 9:56 left. Those two were the last points either team would score for more than three minutes until Dike had another putback to push the lead to 57-53 at 6:49.
 
From there, Lafayette scored the next four to tie the game just over two minutes later before a Hart pull-up at the foul line put Loyola in front, 59-57, at 4:32.
 
Myles Cherry had a game-tying basket with 4:12 on the clock, and Jaworski's fast-break layup under 20 seconds later put Lafayette in front for good.
 
In addition to Hart's 21 points, Jaylin Andrews scored 12 for Loyola. Scott had nine, while Davis scored six points and had six rebounds in his most-extended playing time of the season.
 
Loyola shot 10 of 22 from behind the 3-point line, and its 45.5 percent mark from deep was its best of the season. The Greyhounds held Lafayette, a team that was shooting a Patriot League-leading 39 percent from 3-point range, to 6 of 32 (18.8 percent) in the game.
 
The Greyhounds resume Patriot League action on Monday, January 13, when they host Boston University at 7 p.m. in a nationally-televised game on CBS Sports Network.