Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland plays the second of a two-game road swing on Wednesday, January 29, when it takes on Boston University in a 7 p.m. game.
- The game will stream live on the Patriot League Network.
- Jaylin Andrews and KaVaughn Scott both had double-doubles at Army on January 18, the first time since 2016-17 that Loyola teammates have done it in the same game.
- Loyola and Bucknell combined to shoot 78 free throws on Saturday night.
- Andrew Kostecka had his 11th game this season with 20 or more points, and the 31st of his career, on January 22 against American when he scored 32; he also has nine games with 25+ this year, and it was his eighth career 30-plus point performance, fourth this season. He has finished with 10 or more 63 times since the start of his sophomore year (2017-18). He has averaged 18.1 points in that span.
- Tavaras Hardy is in 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.
- 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.
Series History Versus Boston University
- Loyola and Boston University will meet for the 18th time in eight years and 19th overall when they take the hardwood on Monday night. BU now leads the all-time series, 12-6 after the Terriers won the first meeting of the year, 85-53, on January 13, 2020, in Baltimore.
- Both teams won on their home floor during the 2019-2020 regular-season,.
About The Terriers
- Boston University comes into Wednesday night's game with an 11-10 record and a 5-3 mark in Patriot League after winning Saturday's game at Holy Cross, 79-64.
- Max Mahoney leads the Terriers in both 14.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Walter Whyte is second on Boston University in both categories at 12.1 and 7.1, respectively.
Last Time Out
- Bucknell University led by just one at halftime, 42-41, but the Bison used a pair of scoring runs in the first 10 minutes of the second half to go on to a 98-83 Patriot League victory over Loyola on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion.
- A KaVaughn Scott offensive rebound and putback 1:40 into the second half put Loyola in front by a pair, 47-45, but Bucknell's Bruce Moore scored 14 seconds later and tied the game, sparking a 15-1 Bison run that would see Bucknell take a 60-48 lead with 14:42 left in regulation on a Walter Ellis three.
- Loyola scored eight of the next nine with six Kostecka points among the run to get the deficit to 61-56 less than two minutes later. Bucknell, however, came back with an 11-1 run to lead 72-57 on a Paul Newman layup at 9:56. The Bison would have a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
- Loyola led for much of the first half, going up by as many as seven, 27-20, on a Jaylin Andres three with 8:50 to go before the break. The Bison came back to lead by a point at the break in a first half that saw each team pick up 14 fouls and combine to shoot 39 total free throws.
- Isaiah Hart and Andrew Kostecka each scored 18 points to lead the Greyhounds as two of four Loyola players in double-figures. KaVaughn Scott and Golden Dike each had 13, while Andrews finished with seven to go with team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists.
- Andrew Funk paced Bucknell with a game-high 22 points.
- Overall, the game ended with the teams combining for 78 total free throws. Loyola took 46, tied for the sixth-most in school history.
Getting To The Line
- Loyola took 46 free throws Saturday at Bucknell, the most by a Greyhounds team since November 2011 when it had the same number at UMBC. The 46 are tied for sixth-most in school history and tied for seventh-most in the NCAA this year.
- Overall, Loyola has gone to the line 483 times this season, good for 15th in the NCAA.
Sidelined
- Since the Patriot League opener on January 2, Loyola has missed at least four players and as many as six in its last seven games. The Greyhounds were missing six players due to injury on January 11 against Lafayette, including its top-two scorers – Andrew Kostecka (21.9) and Cam Spencer (9.9). While Kostecka missed just one full game, Spencer has now been out seven-straight.
- Overall, Loyola players have missed 71 games this season due to injury or illness.
Elite Company
- Andrew Kostecka scored 32 points last Wednesday night, the eighth time in the last two years he has reached or exceeded 30 points in a game.
- Since the 2010-11 season, only one Patriot League player has scored 30-plus on more occasions; NBA All-Star C.J. McCollum hit that mark 15 times while he was a player at Lehigh. No one else in the League has done it more than five times. (h/t sports-reference.com)
- As a team, Loyola has had 16 occurrences of a player scoring 30 or more points, 14 of those coming since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2013-14. The 14 times are more than any other Patriot League team except Lehigh.
One And Only
- Andrew Kostecka does a lot of everything for the Greyhounds, and it is reflected in his statistics. He is the only player in NCAA Division I (through games of January 27) who is averaging 20 points, five rebounds (5.2), two steals, two assists (2.6) and half a block (0.8) per game this year.
- This year, Kostecka is 10th in Division I in points per game (21.4), 34th in steals (2.1), 21st in field goals made (149) and 15th in total points (427).
Rounding Into Form
- Jaylin Andrews finished the 2019-20 season by earning Patriot League All-Rookie honors after averaging 8.8 points in conference play. He averaged 12.2 points over Loyola's last five of the season with three games of 12 points or more.
- Andrews had a slow start to the 2019-20 season, averaging just 5.2 points in Loyola's 13 non-conference games, shooting 31.9 percent from the field and 20.9 from 3-point range. Since Patriot League games have started, though, Andrews is averaging 9.9 points while shooting 39.4 percent overall.
- Andrews registered back-to-back season-high scoring numbers in Loyola's two games at Army West Point and versus American, tallying 15 on at the Black Knights before dropping a career-best 25 versus the Eagles. In those games, he has shot 59.1 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range; he also had 17 rebounds and four steals in the games.
Stepping Up Scoring
- With injuries up and down the Greyhounds lineup since the start of Patriot League games, Isaiah Hart has increased his scoring output by five points per game. He tied KaVaughn Scott for team-high honors with 17 points at Colgate and then scored a to-date season-high 21 points versus Lafayette, making a career-best four 3-pointers.
- In eight Patriot League games this year, Hart has averaged 12.4 points, up from 6.6 he was averaging in non-conference games. He has played 44 career Patriot League regular-season games and has averaged 11.6 points over those contests. He also has a 9.8 overall career scoring average with 827 total points.
Make It A Double
- Two Loyola players recorded double-doubles January 18 at Army West Point as Jaylin Andrews had a season-best 15 points and a career-high 10 rebounds, while KaVaughn Scott logged 12 and 10.
- The pair was the first Loyola duo since the 2016-2017 season to post double-doubles in the same game. Cam Gregory and Jarred Jones did it twice that year.
- The double-double was the first of Andrews' career and the second for Scott.
Golden's First Double-Double
- Golden Dike re-entered the starting lineup at Lehigh for an injured KaVaughn Scott and logged his first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. He then had his fourth game this season with 10 or more points on January 13 against Boston University, making 5 of 8 shots to score 11 in only 19 minutes.
- The Spanish freshman now leads the Greyhounds with 5.3 rebounds per game, while he is averaging 6.7 points per game. He is second amongst qualified Patriot League freshmen in rebounds per game and third in points.
Moving Up The Charts
- Andrew Kostecka had three steals on Jan. 2 against Holy Cross, moving him past former teammate Andre Walker (2014-18) for second all-time at Loyola. Now with 208, he trails only Jason Rowe (1996-2000) who is the Greyhounds' all-time record-holder with 273. Kostecka is also ninth all-time in the Patriot League in the category.
- Kostecka, a senior from Germantown, Maryland, is also climbing the school and Patriot League all-time scoring charts. Against American, Kostecka scored 32 points to pass Mike Powell (1,580, 1995-98) and reach ninth in school history in points (now 1,602). With 57 points, he will tie Dylon Cormier (1,659, 2010-14) for eighth. Kostecka is 21st in Patriot League history.
30 Last Decade
- Andrew Kostecka's 30-point performance against VCU marked the 15th time since 2010 that a Loyola player scored 30 or more in a game. Kostecka did it six times, more than any other player. Andre Walker scored 30 or more four times, Dylon Cormier did it three times and Erik Etherly accomplished it once.
And, 30 This Decade
- Kostecka also had the first 30-point performance of the 2020s, finishing with 37 on January 2 against Holy Cross. After scoring 32 against American on January 22, he has four games this season with 30-plus and eight in his career.
Dishing It Out
- Loyola has posted 20 or more assists five times this year through 21 games, making it nine times since Tavaras Hardy took over as head coach in 2018-19 the Greyhounds have had 20-plus. In the eight years prior to Hardy's arrival, the Greyhounds had 20 or more assists just three times and only twice against NCAA Division I teams.
- Last year, Loyola averaged 14.0 assists, up from 11.9 in 2017-2018. This season, it is averaging 16.0, a mark that ranks 23rd in NCAA Division I.
- Of the Greyhounds' 542 made field goals this year, 61.7 percent of them have been assisted. According to kenpom.com, that percentage is 14th-best in the nation. As recently as two years ago, Loyola ranked 332nd nationally in assist percentage.
Shooting Numbers
- The Greyhounds' offense is trending positively in many metrics this season. Two years ago, the Greyhounds were 305th in effective field-goal percentage, and they now rank 52nd (52.6) in the category that weights 3-pointers more significantly.
- Loyola has made 54.2 percent of its 2-point field goal attempts this year, good for 24th nationally (h/t kenpom.com).
From Downtown
- Kenneth Jones knocked down all five of his 3-point attempts against Fairfield en route to scoring a to-date career-high 19 points in the overtime win against the Stags, tying for the third-best performance in school history.
- Through 20 games, Jones is 31 of 72 from 3-point range and is second in the Patriot League with a .431 percentage from behind the arc among qualified players (minimum 1.5 made per game).
KaVaughn Converting
- KaVaughn Scott averaged 9.6 points over a seven-game stretch from November 25-December 27, a span that included three 14-point efforts against IUPUI, Binghamton and Delaware State, and a 13-point game versus UMass Lowell. During the stretch, he made 28 of 45 shots (62.2 percent).
- In games at Colgate and against Lafayette, Scott averaged 13.0 points per game with a season-high 17 coming against the Raiders. Overall, in Patriot League games, he's averaging 9.9 points to raise his season average to 8.4. He is also averaging 6.1 rebounds in the league.
- 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.
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.
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.
- 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 and is on pace to do it again this year.
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.
Up Next
- Loyola returns to Reitz Arena for two of its next three, starting with a Saturday, February 1, game against the U.S. Naval Academy at 5 p.m.
