Game Information
Opponent	South Carolina State Bulldogs | Rising Coaches Classic
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Friday, November 12, 2021
Time	4:00 p.m.
Location	Charleston, S.C. | TD Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Watch	N/A
Online Media	Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays the first of three games this weekend at the Rising Coaches Classic, hosted by College of Charleston, on Friday, November 12, 2021.
• The Greyhounds will tip-off at 4 p.m. at TD Arena against South Carolina State.
• No livestream will be provided for the non-College of Charleston games at the tournament.
• Loyola returns nine players to its roster after reaching the Patriot League Championship Game in 2021. Four starters from that game return this year, as do
• Jaylin Andrews is the team's top returning scorer after averaging 11.6 points per game a year ago to go with 4.9 rebounds. Golden Dike is the Greyhounds' leading rebounder back on the roster; he averaged 6.2 as a sophomore. Cam Spencer saw limited action at the end of the season due to an early injury, but he was key in the Greyhounds' Patriot League Championships run and finished averaging 10.2 points per game.
• Tavaras Hardy is in his fourth 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 three seasons, Loyola improved its field-goal percentage from .438 in 2017-18 to .465 in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, rising from 218th in NCAA Division I in the category to 51st.

Series History    

• Friday afternoon's game will be the first meeting between Loyola and South Carolina State in men's basketball.
• The Greyhounds are 21-14 all-time against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) with the majority of the games coming against Baltimore foes Morgan State (11-7 overall) and Coppin State (4-5).

Last Time Out    

• North Carolina jumped out to a 12-point lead less than four minutes into Tuesday night's season-opener, but Loyola cut the deficit to nine early in the second half, but the 19th-ranked Tar Heels went on a 12-1 run to pull away for an 83-67 victory at the Dean Smith Center.
• Four Loyola players scored in double-figures, led by Jaylin Andrews' 17 and Cam Spencer's 15. Veljko Ilic added 12 points off the bench in his collegiate debut, and Kenneth Jones tallied 10 of his 11 in the first half.
• Caleb Love had a game-high 22 points, while Brady Manek added 20, for North Carolina.
• The Tar Heels converted on five of their first eight shots and made three free throws before the first media timeout to lead 15-3 on two shots by Armando Bacot from the charity stripe at 16:07. A three by Love made it a 17-point North Carolina advantage, 39-22, with 4:32 left in the half, and the Tar Heels' halftime advantage would be 45-31.
• Back-to-back baskets by Spencer made it a 10-point game 47-37, at 16:46 in the second half, and another bucket by the junior at 15:22 had the margin at 10 once more. He converted the and-one, and it was a single-digit deficit for Loyola.
• The Tar Heels, however, quickly scored 12 of the next 13 points to push the lead back to 20, 61-41, at 12:07. North Carolina ran the margin up to 26, 79-53, on a Manek basket at 4:28, but the final deficit settled at 16.
• Golden Dike led Loyola with seven rebounds, while Jones and Ilic both had four rebounds.

Stepping Into A Leading Role    

• Jaylin Andrews is the Greyhounds top returning scorer, after averaging 11.6 points per game as a junior in the shortened 2020-2021 season, and he showed his ability to step into a leading role during Loyola's 2021-2022 opener at North Carolina. Andrews started his senior year with a team-high 17 points, knocking down 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range.
• The game against the Tar Heels follows an exhibition outing against Johns Hopkins that Andrews led the team with 18 points, making 3 of 7 from behind the arc.
• Andrews continued his climb as a consistent scorer and rebounder for the Greyhounds during the 2020-2021 season. He went for 13 points twice during the first two games of the year before breaking out for 22 on January 24 against American.
• He averaged 14.3 points during the Patriot League Championships, scoring 17 in the quarterfinal at Navy and 20 in the title game at Colgate. Overall, Andrews wrapped up his junior campaign by averaging 11.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the 17 contests.
• Andrews also became a more efficient shooter, knocking down 44.8 percent of shots from the field during his junior season, an improvement of more than five percent over his first two years with the Greyhounds. He also picked up his rebounding by almost 1.5 per game.
• Through 80 career games, of which he has started 57, Andrews is averaging 8.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Spencer Returns    

• Cam Spencer missed the 2020-2021 season's first 12 games recovering from off-season surgery, but he made his presence felt in the Greyhounds last five games. He came off the bench in each of the last two regular-season games, scoring 10 while logging three rebounds, two assists and two steals on February 27 in 17 minutes. Spencer then had 11 points and five rebounds in 25 minutes the following day. He made his first start of the year in the Patriot League Quarterfinal, playing 33 minutes while scoring 10 to go with seven assists, five rebounds and two steals.
• Spencer raised his minutes played to 35 in the semifinal against Army West Point, posting to-date season-highs with 16 points and seven rebounds. In the five games, Spencer averaged 11.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
• The junior guard opened the 2021-2022 season with a 15-point, 3-steal effort at No. 19 North Carolina, scoring 11 of his points in the second half against the Tar Heels.
• During his freshman campaign of 2019-2020, Spencer averaged 10.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 23 games. He had a 3.8:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• In the 29 games Spencer has played at Loyola, the Greyhounds are 17-12. He has averaged 10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists during his career and has a 2.9:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Veteran In The Backcourt    

• Kenneth Jones has been a mainstay in the Greyhounds backcourt over the last three seasons, averaging at least 20.3 minutes per game over 76 contests from 2018 to 2021. He averaged 6.0 points per game while shooting 43.7 percent from the field, 39.0 percent from 3-point range, in his first three seasons at Loyola.
• He opened his senior year with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists at North Carolina, tallying 10 of his total in the first half against the Tar Heels..
• As a sophomore in 2019-2020, Jones finished third in the Patriot League in 3-point percentage, making 40.4 percent from behind the arc.

Strong Start    

• Veljko Ilic came off the bench and made a strong impression at the start of his collegiate career, going 4 of 5 from the field and 4 of 6 from the free-throw line to finish with 12 points at No. 19 North Carolina.
• He also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal in just over 18 minutes of action against the Tar Heels.

Golden Touch    

• Golden Dike has been a vital part of the Greyhounds' post rotation since coming to Loyola, and he averaged 25.7 minutes in 2020-2021 while starting every game but Senior Day.
• He finished the year averaging 7.1 points per game, just up from his 7.0 as a freshman in 2019-2020 when he made the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. Dike raised his rebounding average by a board per game, finishing ninth in the Patriot League with 6.2 per contest.
• In his 50 games played over two-plus seasons, Dike has shot 56.9 percent from the field, and finishing in the paint is not the only touch he's shown. He also finished third on the team with 37 assists in 2020-2021, an average of 2.2 per game.
• Dike continued to compete with the Spanish National Team program last summer, competing for the U20 team at the FIBA European Challengers event. He led Spain with 8.0 rebounds per game as his side went 4-1 in the top division of the event.

A Look To The Past    

• Last year was a year unlike any other for college basketball, and the Greyhounds were no different. As a conference, the Patriot League Council of Presidents voted during the Fall of 2020 to play only conference games starting in early January.
• The Greyhounds competed in 17 games, 14 in the regular-season and three in the conference tournament, going 6-11 overall.
• Loyola lost its final two regular-season games to the U.S. Naval Academy and entered the Patriot League Championships as the No. 9 seed with a 4-10 overall mark. The Greyhounds, however, jumped out to a 40-28 halftime lead against top-seeded Navy in the Patriot League Quarterfinal and went on to a 76-68 victory on the Midshipmen's home floor.
• Loyola then traveled to the U.S. Military Academy for its first-ever date in the Patriot League Semifinals, and a 42-25 halftime advantage turned into a 67-63 win over the Black Knights.
• The Greyhounds' season then came to an end in Hamilton, New York, as Colgate won the title game, 85-72.

Difference Makers    

• The biggest differences for Loyola in its six wins versus its 11 losses last season came defensively and in ball-handling.
• Loyola held its opponents to 38.3 percent from the field in its six wins, while the 11 losses have come while opponents have shot 45.6 percent. Additionally, the Greyhounds defended the three to the tune of 27.9 percent compared to 36.8 percent.
• Loyola, meanwhile, shot 48.6 percent from the field in the wins as opposed to 45.1 in the losses.
• The Greyhounds averaged only 11.5 giveaways in wins as opposed to 16.4 in the other nine.

United Nations    

• Loyola enters the 2021-2022 season with five players who hail from outside of the United States on its roster. The Greyhounds have two from Spain – Golden Dike and Alonso Faure – a pair from Serbia – twins Milos and Veljko Ilic – and one from Nigeria – Casmir Ochiaka.
• The five internationally born players are the most of any team in the Patriot League.

Seasoned Sophomores    

• Loyola's pair of sophomores, Alonso Faure and Wade Jackson, both gained significant playing time as freshmen in 2020-2021 and will be key members of Tavaras Hardy's rotation this year. Faure averaged 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 17 games, while Jackson started the first three of the year and saw action in 14.

First In The First    

• The offseason news out of Loyola basketball was monumental as the Greyhounds had their first-ever NBA First Round Draft Pick when Santi Aldama was selected No. 30 by the Memphis Grizzlies after spending two seasons with the Greyhounds.
• Aldama was just the second Loyola player to be selected in the modern NBA Draft after Mike Morrison was a second-round pick in 1988. He also became the fourth Patriot League player drafted and third in the first round.
• Aldama's contributions will be missed by the Greyhounds as he was the only player in the NBA to average more than 18 points, eight rebounds, two assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game last year (per SportsReference.com).
• The sophomore from the Canary Islands of Spain finished 12th in NCAA Division I in scoring (21.2 ppg) and 14th in rebounds (10.1).

Glass Ceiling Shattered    

• When Corin 'Tiny' Adams assumed her seat on the Loyola bench January 16, 2021, in its game at Lafayette, she became the first female assistant coach of a Patriot League men's basketball team.
• Adams joined the Loyola staff in October 2020, and she became the fifth female assistant coach in NCAA Division I history. Currently, she is the only female to hold such a spot after Maine's Edniesha Curry moved to the NBA's Portland TrailBlazers.
• Head Coach Tavaras Hardy added a second female to the coaching staff during the most recent offseason as Sydney Hines was named the program's director operations. The former player at Central Connecticut State, Hines replaces longtime director of operations Kevin Farrell who took an assistant coaching job at Belmont Abbey College

Meet The New Guys    

• Loyola will open the season with seven new players on the roster, six freshman and a junior walk-on.
• Nick Marshall comes to Loyola from River Hill High School in nearby Howard County where he averaged 17.5 points, 6 rebounds and five assists per game as a senior.
• David Brown III played at Bishop McNamara High School. As a senior in 2020-2021, Brown averaged 14 points and six rebounds per game, and as a sophomore in 2018-2019, he was named to the All-MIAA team while at McDonogh School.
• Twins Milos and Veljko Ilic played at Hoosac School in New York after growing up in Serbia. The post players both averaged nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds at Hoosac and have played in age group tournament for the Serbian National Team.
• Chris Kuzemka was named the Virginia Class 6A Player of the Year at Centreville High School in 2020-2021 after averaging 22.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. He was a standout wide receiver, too, and was originally slated to play football at Virginia Tech,.
• Charlie Weisberg, a freshman, and Alex Jackson, a junior, joined the program as walk-ons for the 2020-2021 season. Weisberg averaged 16 points per game at The Millbrook School, while Jackson played high school basketball with current Loyola players Cam Spencer and Jaylin Andrews at Boys Latin School of Maryland.