Quick Hits About The Hounds
- For the second weekend in a row, Loyola University Maryland men's basketball will play a two-game set with Lafayette College.
- This time, the Leopards will host the Greyhounds in the opening game at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 13.
- On Sunday, Lafayette will travel to Baltimore to Reitz Arena where it will face Loyola at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
- Due to Patriot League restrictions, fans will not be permitted to attend the game.
- Loyola has shot .450 in its first eight games to its opponents .430.
- Santi Aldama was named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team after being one of three Greyhounds to earn conference All-Rookie recognition last year. In just 10 games last year – Aldama missed the first 22 due to an injury – he averaged 15.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game as the Greyhounds went 6-4.
- Tavaras Hardy is in his third 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 .470 in 2020-21, rising from 218th in NCAA Division I in the category to 55th.
Series History Versus Lafayette
- Loyola and Lafayette will meet for the 24th time in series history on Sunday evening with the Leopards holding a 13-10 lead in the all-time series, winning four of the five meetings this season.
- The Leopards squeezed out a 77-75 victory in the Greyhounds' first game of the season, January 16, in Easton, Pennsylvania. The following day, Lafayette left Reitz Arena with a 72-70 win.
- •The Greyhounds won the third game of the year on February 7, posting a 75-62 win in Baltimore before the Leopards won 80-76 the following night in Easton. Yesterday, Lafayette won 97-94 in triple overtime.
Let's Do This Again... And Again
- Loyola and Lafayette will play for the sixth time this season on Sunday evening; Saturday marked the first time in program history the Greyhounds have played a team more than four times in a campaign.
- During the 1934-35 season, Loyola played Mount St. Mary's twice during the regular-season, and the squads met three times in the postseason during a best-of-three series for the Maryland Intercollegiate Conference Championship. Mount St. Mary's is the Greyhounds most-played opponent. The 2019 meeting was the 175th all-time between the programs, making it the rivalry with the most games played in State of Maryland history.
One And Only Aldama
- Santi Aldama is the only player in NCAA Division I this season to average more than 17 points, eight rebounds and 2.75 assists per game (per SportsReference.com).
- The sophomore from the Canary Islands has posted 21.1 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game through eight. With his average of 1.6 blocks, he is also the only player in the nation to average 16 points, eight rebounds, 2.75 assists and one block per game.
- If his stats hold average out for the remainder of the season, he would be the only player in Patriot League history with those numbers in a season.
Context To Aldama's Game
- Santi Aldama broke the school's single-game rebounding that had stood for nearly 45 years. Jimmy "Jumpshot" Smith set the previous best on February 23, 1976 – before any member of the Loyola coaching staff was born – when he had 21 in a game against American.
- Aldama matched the 22 rebounds by Colgate's Adonal Foyle – a player who went on to a 13-year NBA career – for most in a Patriot League game. Foyle had 22 in a 1995 game against Army West Point.
- Aldama is the first player in Loyola history to amass a game with 20 or more points and rebounds, and obviously the first to have a 30-20 game.
- Foyle is the only other Patriot League player to have a 30-20 game, something he did twice. He had 32 points and 20 rebounds in February 1995 against Army.
- Per SportsReference.com, Aldama is one of three NCAA Division I players to have 30-20 games this season, joining Long Island's Eral Penn, who had 33 points and 20 rebounds against Fairleigh Dickinson earlier this month, and The Citadel's Hayden Brown, who in December had 31 points and 21 boards against NAIA foe Columbia International.
- In the last 10 years, Aldama's accomplishment marks the 26th time a NCAA Division I player has had 30-20.
Another Rebounding Record
- The Greyhounds set a team rebounding record, as well, on Saturday afternoon, grabbing 57 total boards. That number eclipsed the 53 they had last year against Elizabethtown (December 21, 2019).
30 Back-To-Back
- Santi Aldama scored 30 points for the second-straight game, matching on Saturday the career-high he set five days earlier in the same venue when he had 30 at Lafayette on Monday night.
- He is the second Loyola player to score 30 in back-to-back games in the last 10 years, joining his former teammate Andrew Kostecka who did so last year when he had 30 at VCU (December 29, 2019) and 37 against Holy Cross (January 2, 2020). Dylon Cormier did it to start the 2013-2014 season when he had 31 at Binghamton (November 8, 2013) and 34 two days later at Cornell.
Two Points Or Less
- Four of Loyola's seven games this year have been decided by a total of seven points with a pair of two-point losses to Lafayette and a one-point and a two-point setback to American.
- It had been 93 years since the Greyhounds have played three-straight games with margins of two or less. Between January 27-February 4, 1928, the Loyola lost three games, each by two points: American (L, 27-25), Western Maryland (L, 27-25), Blue Ridge College (L, 31-29).
- The four-straight games separated by two or fewer points mark the first time in program history that the Greyhounds have played that many games of that nature, regardless of outcome.
- In all, six of the Greyhounds' games have been decided by 14 points.
Double-Doubles
- Aldama had his third-straight double-double and fifth in six games. He now has seven in his 18-game collegiate career.
- He was one of three Greyhounds with double-doubles in the game, joining Golden Dike (12 points, 12 rebounds) and Jaylin Andrews (12 points, 10 rebounds).
- Saturday marked the first time in at least 10 years that three Greyhounds have had double-doubles in the same game. They have had six instances of two players posting 10 or more in two categories, three happening already this year.
Patriot League On ESPN+
- A new season means a new home for streaming video of Patriot League contests. Last summer, the conference announced a multi-year agreement that made ESPN+ the exclusive digital home for live Patriot League events.
- Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for great Patriot League games, as well as much more. Information is available at http://loyo.la/espnplus20.
- Additionally, international fans can subscribe to watch games via SIDEARM Sports. Information for that can also be found at LoyolaGreyhounds.com.
Glass Ceiling Shattered
- When Corin 'Tiny' Adams assumed her seat on the Loyola bench January 16 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 is one of two female assistant coaches on a Division I bench this year, along with the University of Maine's Edniesha Curry. Adams is the sixth woman to serve as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I history.
As Advertised
- Santi Aldama was heralded as one of the Class of 2019's Top 100 players by national recruiting analysts prior to his arrival, and he has lived up to the strong billing since making a late debut for the Greyhounds.
- The Most Valuable Player of the 2019 FIBA U-18 European Championships was ranked as high as the No. 65 recruit in the nation prior to his freshman season, but he missed the first 22 games of 2019-2020 before debuting on February 1, 2020, against the U.S. Naval Academy. He came off the bench in that game to score 11 points, and he followed that with two more 11-point outings while his minutes were built up.
- He had a nine-point game on February 12, 2020, at American, but since then, Aldama has put together a streak of nine-straight games scoring in double-figures with five games of 20 or more intermixed.
- In his last 13 games, spanning the end of last season and the start of this, Aldama has nearly averaged a double-double with 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He also has averaged 2.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game during that stretch.
- This year, Aldama has shot 48.5 percent from the field – up from 45.9 last year – while averaging 21.1 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.6 blocks per game.
- Aldama has posted double-doubles in five of the Greyhounds' last six games to give him seven in his 18 game collegiate career.
- He had a career-high 30 points in the Greyhounds' February 8 game at Lafayette, grabbing 10 rebounds while tallying four assists and a pair of blocked shots, too. A day after the game, he was named Patriot League Player of the Week for the first time in his career.
Stepping Into Leading Role
- Jaylin Andrews shook off 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. In Patriot League games, though, Andrews averaged 9.9 points.
- He opened 2020-2021 slowly with just three points in the first half of the opener at Lafayette, but he shook that off quickly by tallying 10 in the second half to finish with 13 points, seven rebounds and a pair of assists.
- Andrews posted his second career double-double at American, putting up 13 points and a career-high tying 10 rebounds, and he followed that with a 22-point, 6-rebound, 4-steal game against the Eagles at home the next day.
- After scoring all 15 of his points in the second half at Lafayette on February 8, Andrews is second on the team in points (11.6) and third in rebounds (4.8).
Hart Makes Big Late
- Isaiah Hart played his best offensive basketball of the game in the overtime periods on Saturday, scoring nine of his season-high 13 points in extra time.
- Hart's baskets with 55 seconds left in the first overtime and with six seconds to go in the second tied the score and forced more time.
- His 13 points, which came on 5 of 9 shooting, give him 973 in his career. With 27 more points, he'll become the 40th player in school history to score 1,000 or more points.
- Hart is the Greyhounds' active leader in nearly every statistical category, including games played (99), started (92), minutes (2,776) and points (973). He has averaged 9.8 points per game in his three-plus years.
Triple The Fun
- Loyola's triple-overtime game on February 13 at Lafayette is tied for the longest in the school's documented history, and it comes only 20 days after the Greyhounds played a three-overtime game on February 24 against American. The games match contests in 1991 (loss to Saint Peter's), 2002 (loss to Siena) and 2015 (win versus Colgate). All four of the documented games prior to February 13 took place in Reitz Arena.
Big Amongst His Class Peers
- Golden Dike put together a solid freshman season in 2019-2020, averaging 7.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while seeing action in all 32 outings.
- He finished second amongst qualified Patriot League freshmen in rebounding, and he is first amongst those in that category who return this year. Dike shot 58.9 percent from the field, a team-best, in 2019-2020. He was sixth overall in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage, tops amongst freshmen.
- In the 2020-2021 season-opener, Dike nearly had his third career double-double, coming up two rebounds shy with 15 points and eight boards at Lafayette. Dike later scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half or overtime on January 24 against American. He had his first double-double of the year on February 13 at Lafayette, and he enters the second game of this Lafayette series averaging 9.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this year.
Cool Hand Luke
- With Loyola's top three returning guards (by scoring average and minutes played) sidelined due to injury, senior guard Luke Johnson brought experience to an otherwise green backcourt for the Greyhounds early in the year.
- His steady hand has continued through the season as he has received the most extended playing time of his career, averaging 28.9 minutes per game. He made his first career start on January 24 against American, the first of five-straight starts.
- The Lexington, Kentucky native was sidelined for nearly all of the 2019-2020 Patriot League season with a broken foot, and he entered this year with 310 minutes played over the last three seasons.
- Johnson made his second-straight start, and the second of his career, January 30 at Navy, and finished with a steal and two blocked shots. The swats were the first two of his 54-game career.
- Through eight games, Johnson leads Loyola with 16 steals, and he is second in the Patriot League with 2.0 steals per game.
- Johnson's 16 steals have tripled his previous career total of four, all which came during his freshman season of 2017-2018.
Bradsher Goes Big
- Making the first start of his collegiate career in the season-opener at Lafayette, senior guard Brandon Bradsher entered 2019-2020 with 14 total points in 17 career games.
- The walk-on shattered that total with a team-high 21 points, going 6 of 9 from the field, 5 of 7 from 3-point range and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line against the Leopards in 25 minutes of action.
- Bradsher, who started his time at Loyola as a manager with the program in 2017-18, had played just 28 total minutes before the game last Saturday. He banked in his first 3-point attempt in the opening two minutes, the first of five he'd hit in the game.
- He followed that performance with a 12-point outing against Lafayette last Sunday, and he was named to the Patriot League Weekly Honor Roll.
- In his third appearance against the Leopards, February 7, Bradsher scored all nine of his points in the second half of the win. He also had two steals that both led to others' fast-break baskets.
Graduation Success
- Loyola University Maryland tied for the fifth-highest overall Graduate Success Rate (GSR) in the NCAA report released in November, highlighting the Greyhounds success in the classroom. Loyola had a 95 percent GSR, and it has ranked in the top-25 of the GSR in all 16 years since the report's inception.
- Loyola's men's basketball program was the only one in the State of Maryland that had a NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 100 percent for the most-recent report.
Up Next
- After its fifth and sixth games this year against Lafayette, Loyola will play Lehigh on February 20-21 and the host American on February 24. The Greyhounds are scheduled to close the year against Navy February 27-28.
