NICEVILLE, Fla. –
Kenneth Jones' floater with six seconds left gave Loyola University Maryland men's basketball a one-point lead on Saturday, and
David Brown III blocked a 3-point attempt by University of Louisiana at Monroe at the buzzer to secure a 65-64 win in the teams' finale of the Emerald Coast Classic.
Loyola (3-4 overall) led by as many as 14 in the second half, but the Warhawks (2-5) came back to lead, 62-60 on a Thomas Howell jumper with 1:17 on the clock.
Brown responded with a three from the deep, left corner in front with a minute to play. Howell scored again for Louisiana Monroe with just over 30 seconds to play, making it a 64-63 Warhawks lead.
Jones drove the paint and kicked a pass off to a teammate, but the layup attempt was too strong, and Louisiana Monroe grabbed a rebound with 23 seconds left. Jamari Blackmon was fouled after grabbing the board, but he missed the front-end of one-and-one.
Brown pulled down the board for the Greyhounds, and Loyola brought it into the frontcourt. After running offense for 10 seconds, Jones used an
Alonso Faure high ball-screen to get a step on his defender. He ran into traffic in the paint, but he released a floater on the run that found the net to put Loyola up by one.
The Warhawks inbounded the ball to Blackmon, but his jumper at the buzzer was blocked by Brown, securing the win.
Brown, who was named to the Emerald Coast Classic All-Tournament Team, finished the game with nine points, four rebounds and three blocked shots. His effort came a day after he had career-highs of 22 points and seven rebounds Friday against Southern University.
Chris Kuzemka finished Saturday's game with a career-high 12 points to lead Loyola. He made 4 of 7 attempts from 3-point range, exceeding his career total for 3-pointers made in the game.
Jones' last-second bucket gave him 11 points to go with four assists.
Isaiah Alexander scored 10 points, and
Alonso Faure had nine.
Golden Dike scored six and led Loyola with five rebounds;
Deon Perry also tallied six and paired that with five assists.
Louisiana Monroe led 8-4 seven minutes into the game after a Tyreke Locure basket, but
Markese Redding and Faure scored in the paint on consecutive possessions, and Loyola tied the score on Faure's layup with 11:07 to go in the first half.
Kuzemka hit two 3-pointers, bookending a three by Alexander, putting Loyola in front, 17-8. Louisiana Monroe made one of two at the free-throw line to momentarily stem the run, but a third Kuzemka three and a layup by Dike gave the Greyhounds a 22-9 lead with 5:13 on the clock.
Loyola led by nine at halftime and two Brown conversions at the charity stripe pushed the advantage to its largest point, 36-22, with 17:39 left in the half. The Warhawks brought the margin closer to 10, but Brown made two at the line to push the lead to 58-47 with 5:19 on the clock.
Louisiana Monroe, however, scored 13-straight points to lead 60-58 on a Victor Buffuto basket with 2:12 to play.
Faure scored in the paint before Howell's basket put the Warhawks back up, setting up Brown's go-ahead three.
Loyola will wrap-up its four-game road trip on Wednesday, November 30, with a 6 p.m. game in Vestal, New York, at Binghamton University.
Gallery: (11-26-2022) Men's Basketball at Emerald Coast Classi