EASTON, Pa. –
Santi Aldama scored a career-high 30 points and had his fourth double-double of the year with 10 rebounds Monday night, but Lafayette College used a 15-5 run midway through the second half to take a seven-point lead and hold on for an 80-76 victory on its home floor in Patriot League action.
The Greyhounds came back to tie the score twice, both times on baskets by
Jaylin Andrews, but the Leopards' Justin Jaworski hit a 26-foot 3-pointer with 58 seconds left to put Lafayette (6-4 overall) in front, 75-72, giving it a lead it would not relinquish.
Aldama made 11 field goals, three from behind the arc, to tally his 30 points, eclipsing his previous best of 25 set earlier this season at American. He has now had double-doubles in four of the Greyhounds' seven games this season, all coming in their last five outings.
An Andrews free throw with 12:11 on the clock put Loyola up 54-50, but two at the charity stripe from E.J. Stephens tied the game less than a minute later.
After a Jaworski basket, Aldama caught a baseline out-of-bounds lob from
Kenneth Jones for a dunk at 10:27 to tie the game at 56-56. Jawowski then hit a three exactly a minute later to put Lafayette in front. More than two minutes later, Stephens capped a 7-0 stretch for the Leopards with two free throws, and they were in front, 65-58.
Aldama responded with his third 3-pointer of the game with 6:36 left, sparking a 7-0 run for the Greyhounds. Andrews hit a pull-up from near the free throw line with 5:48 left to cap the stretch and knot the game at 65-65.
Lafayette went up four on two occasions over the next three minutes, but Loyola came back to tie the score once again. It was Andrews with a layup at 1:23 that made it 72-72, but Jaworski hit a deep three less than a half-minute later to put the Leopards back up.
From that point, the Greyhounds (1-6) could not draw closer than a point.
In addition to Aldama's double-double, Andrews scored 15 points and Jones had 12 for Loyola.
Golden Dike tallied nine points and eight rebounds, as well.
