Game Information
Opponent	Coppin State Eagles
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Time	7:00 p.m.
Location	Baltimore, Md. | Physical Education Complex Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Watch	Coppin State Webstream
Online Media	Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays its first game of the season in its home state on Wednesday, November 17, when it heads to Coppin State University.
• The Greyhounds will tip-off at 7 p.m. at the Eagles' Physical Education Complex.
• The game will stream live.
• Loyola's 11 3-pointers against S.C. State were its most since February 16, 2020.
• 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    

• Loyola and Coppin State will meet for the 10th time when they take the court on Wednesday night with the Eagles holding a 5-4 advantage in the previous nine contests.
• The Greyhounds have won each of the last two games in 2011 and 2012. In the most recent game, on November 28, 2012, at Coppin State, the Loyola held the Eagles to 22.6 percent from the field in the second half to pull away for a 67-51 victory.
• Dylon Cormier scored 27 in the game, while Robert Olson had seven rebounds for Loyola.

Last Time Out    

• Cam Spencer had his second-straight game with 20-plus points, finishing with a game-high 23 on Sunday, but a late Loyola rally came up just short in a 70-65 loss to Lipscomb in the final game of the Rising Coaches Classic.
• Spencer made two free throws with 64 ticks left on the clock to cap a 16-1 Loyola run and draw the Greyhounds within two points. Defensively, Loyola held the Bison (3-1 overall) without a field goal for the final 4 minutes, 50 seconds of the game.
• Jaylin Andrews then had a steal for the Greyhounds, but a jumper went off the rim, and Lipscomb grabbed the rebound. Will Pruitt was fouled with 28 seconds remaining, and he made both free throws to stretch the game to a two-possession margin. The Greyhounds misfired on a 3-pointer, and Pruitt was again fouled, making the second of two at the line to seal the game.
• Andrews had nine points, while Kenneth Jones and Wade Jackson each scored eight for the Greyhounds. All eight of Jackson's points came in the second half, including a three with 2:15 on the clock that closed the gap to four.
• Veljko Ilic and Andrews tied for team-high honors with seven rebounds each, while Spencer and Jones both had four assists.

20-Plus Back-To-Back    

• Cam Spencer had his first back-to-back games with 20 or more points last weekend, scoring a to-date career-high 32 points against College of Charleston before dropping in 23 on Sunday versus Lipscomb.
• The junior guard made 19 of 37 shots, including five 3-pointers, in the games. He also had nine assists with just one turnover in the contests.

Hitting The College Boards    

• Golden Dike showed his ability to be a top-level rebounder on Friday afternoon when he grabbed a career-high 18 boards against South Carolina State, seven on the offensive glass.
• Dike's 18 rebounds are tied for sixth-most in Loyola single-game history. Save for Santi Aldama's school-record 22 in a game last February, Dike's 18 are the most since the late Omari Israel had 18 in 2008.
• The 18 rebounds also rank third most amongst NCAA Division I players this season.

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 then blew up for a career-high 30 points on Friday afternoon against South Carolina State, going 11 of 15 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The 30 points exceeded his previous career-best of 25 points from January 2020 against American.
• 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 83 career games, of which he has started 60, Andrews is averaging 8.5 points and 3.8 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. He then had 16 points and six rebounds against South Carolina State, following by outputs of 32 and 23 points to close the Rising Coaches Classic against College of Charleston and Lipscomb.
• 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 32 games Spencer has played at Loyola, the Greyhounds are 18-14. He has averaged 11.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists during his career and has a 3.3:1 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 21.4 minutes per game over 80 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, and through four games this year he has averaged 9.3 per game.
• 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..
• Jones then set a career-high with eight assists on November 12 against South Carolina State.
• 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.

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 53 games played over two-plus seasons, Dike has shot 57.6 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.

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.
• Versus College of Charleston, he was 5 of 6 from the field to score 10, and he had seven rebounds the following day against Lipscomb.

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.

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.