Game Information
Opponent	Fairfield Stags
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Sunday, November 28, 2021
Time	2:00 p.m.
Location	Bridgeport, Conn. | Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Watch	ESPN+ | International Video Stream
Online Media	Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball heads to Connecticut for a Thanksgiving Weekend game against former Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference rival Fairfield University.
• The Greyhounds and Stags are set to play at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 26, at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard in a game that will stream live on ESPN+.
• Cam Spencer is leading Loyola and second in the Patriot League in scoring at 19.6 points per game. Jaylin Andrews leads the conference in steals with 2.5.
• Jaylin Andrews is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago 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 Fairfield will meet for the 62nd time on the hardwood Sunday afternoon with the Stags entering the game with a 38-23 advantage in the previous meetings.
• The schools were Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foes for the 24 seasons when Loyola was a member of the conference (1989-2013) before moving to the Patriot League before the start of the 2013-2014 campaign. The teams then played a five-game series from 2013-2017 before not playing in 2018. This game is the second of a two-game series that started in 2019-2020.
• Loyola and Fairfield last played on November 17, 2019, when the Greyhounds outscored the Stags, 16-7, in overtime for an 84-75 victory. Andrew Kostecka scored 31 points for Loyola, while Kenneth Jones and Golden Dike had career-highs of 19 and 18, respectively.

Last Time Out    

• Nick Marshall and David Brown III each had career-high scoring outputs Wednesday afternoon, as Loyola went into the Thanksgiving holiday with a 69-42 win over visiting Elizabethtown in Reitz Arena.
• Both players knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, as Marshall finished with 12 point and Brown with eight. Marshall also had a career-best seven rebounds for the Greyhounds.
• Cam Spencer led all players with 13 points, and Jaylin Andrews scored 10 for the Greyhounds. Alonso Faure came off the bench to score eight and grab a game-high nine rebounds, while Spencer and Kenneth Jones each had six assists.
• Marshall missed a three, but Andrews grabbed the rebounds, and Spencer fed Marshall for a jumper in the paint with 5:13 left in the first half, sparking a 10-2 run that take the teams to the break. Faure grabbed a rebound off his own miss and scored with two ticks left in the first half to put Loyola up 13, 29-16.
• The Blue Jays cut the lead back to 11 with a Jalin Robinson three just over three minutes into the second half, but Loyola scored the next seven points to take its first 20-point lead of the game, 46-26, on a Wade Jackson transition layup with 14:27 on the clock. Less than two minutes later, Spencer capped a 13-3 run with a three that pushed the lead to 23.
• Brown would score in transition off a Faure rebound and assist at 5:57, giving the Greyhounds a 63-35 lead that would be their largest of the afternoon at 28.
• Loyola had 24 assists on 29 made field goals in the game, led by the six each from Spencer and Jones and Faure's four. The 24 assists are tied for sixth-most in school single-game history.
• Four Greyhounds had six or more assists: Faure (9), Golden Dike and Marshall (7, each) and Spencer (6). Spencer also had a game-high four steals.

New Contributors    

• Nick Marshall and David Brown III both earned their most extended playing time on Wednesday against Elizabethtown and the freshmen came through with the scoring highs of their young careers. Marshall made 4 of 7 shots to score 12, and Brown hit a pair of first-half threes en route to eight points.
• Marshall grabbed seven rebounds, as well, in the game.
• Marshall more than doubled his minutes played in the season's first five games – he was limited due to a nagging injury – and Brown played a career-high 21. Marshall entered the game with just three career points, and Brown had just four.

Consistent Presence    

• Alonso Faure has continued to build on his solid freshman season where he averaged 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds and has garnered consistent playing time in the post for the Greyhounds.
• Over the last two games, the sophomore from Spain has averaged 7.5 points and 9 rebounds in an average of 18 minutes per game. He scored six and had nine boards against Coppin State before posting eight points and the same tally of rebounds against Elizabethtown.
• Through six games, he is averaging 5.8 points and 5.0 rebounds this year.

20-Plus Back-To-Back    

• Cam Spencer had his first back-to-back games with 20 or more points in the final two games of the Rising Coaches Classic, 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 November 12 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 November 12 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 85 career games, of which he has started 62, Andrews is averaging 8.5 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. 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 34 games Spencer has played at Loyola, the Greyhounds are 19-15. He has averaged 11.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists during his career and has a 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 21.5 minutes per game over 81 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 five games this year he has averaged 8.4 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 55 games played over two-plus seasons, Dike has shot 57.8 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.

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.

Up Next    

• Loyola returns to Reitz Arena for its next two games, first hosting Chicago State University on Wednesday, December 1, at 7 p.m.
• The Greyhounds then take on Mount St. Mary's University in a men's-women's doubleheader on Saturday, December 4. The Alumni Day event will start with the men's game at 1 p.m.